In the Bay Area, many people want to “go natural.” From shopping at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s to the latest skincare treatments that use organic and natural ingredients, folks on the Peninsula really want natural. This is a good way forward because natural means treating the environment with respect, which is something that we should all do.
And “natural” has now extended to a treatment for hair loss. Certainly, at Silicon Valley Hair Institute we are experts at providing treatments for men with bald areas or areas of thinning hair, and for women as well. Women tend to have thinning hair rather than bald areas, but nonetheless, it makes many of them feel extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed.
We have been providing hair transplants for both men and women for many years, and we can do this manually, or we can use the ARTAS robot for hair transplants which was developed by a team under the direction of our Dr. Miguel Canales. Indeed, his name is on no fewer than 11 patents relating to the ARTAS robot.
But today, there are now also natural therapies for hair loss, one of which is called PRP. That stands for Platelet-Rich Plasma, and it doesn’t get more natural than that because it actually uses a sample of the patient’s own blood.
Best For Areas of Thinning Hair
As one of the natural therapies for hair loss, this works best for areas of thinning hair rather than completely bald areas. However, it can also be used to help speed up the growth of hair follicles that have been transplanted into bald areas, so it is useful for both men and women.
The way that this works is that a sample of blood is processed in a centrifuge which has the effect of separating the solid parts of the blood from the liquid. The solid part contains between three and five times as many platelets as the blood circulating in the body. Platelets are what commence the process of coagulation when you cut yourself.
This PRP is then injected into the areas of thinning hairs, and it seems to stimulate the growth of miniaturized hairs into full and thick hairs. As a procedure, PRP has been used for some years for the treatment of osteoarthritis, injured tendons, and in cardiovascular medicine, but we are now using it as one of the natural therapies for hair loss.
Treatment only takes about an hour and needs to be repeated after four and eight weeks. Thereafter, treatment may be needed every three months or so depending upon individual response.
If PRP for hair loss may be of interest to you, make an appointment with Dr. Canales for a free consultation and assessment.