Thank you for the question. You state in your question that you are of African descent who
is connecting the use of hair dye for more than 10 years as a cause of your hair loss.
And you say that once you noticed your hair is thinning, you shaved your head and you
noticed that the hair in the crown area is thin and you are asking whether platelet-rich
plasma (PRP) and ACELL will be of benefit.
I can certainly assist you with this question. A little bit of background, I’m a Board-certified
cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon practicing
in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years. Hair transplant and non-surgical hair loss
treatment is a large part of what I do in my practice. And in fact, I am the founder
of TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration Centers, a system which we developed in our practice
over several years as a non-surgical treatment for pattern hair loss affecting both men and
women and people come into our practice from all over the world for this treatment. So
I think I can give you some guidance to how I assess people like yourself in my practice.
Now in the absence you submitting any photos, I can at least appreciate your issue because
you are essentially connecting hair dying with hair loss. So just to understand, there
are certainly situations where something you apply on top of the hair or your skin can
cause hair loss and one that is particularly significant for people of African descent
is the use of hair relaxers. Now hair relaxers can very much be problematic because the chemical
makeup of a hair relaxer is very toxic to the skin. And we have tried to help a lot
of people who’ve come with scarring from hair relaxing procedures where with the chemicals
getting absorbed in the skin would really damage the skin and people often look like
they have been burned. So there is a distinction here, that’s a chemical and that’s toxic
to the skin.
Hair dye is actually generally not toxic to the skin and won’t cause hair thinning and
that is one of the common misinterpretations. And people often believe wearing hats causes
hair thinning. That is not the case either. So although, what is most likely the situation
is you were dying your hair and then the genetic pattern of your hair loss begun and continued.
And so you are in a situation where you’ve connected 2 events that happened in sequence
but you connected them as having a causal relationship.
So that being said, let’s move forward with your situation being male pattern hair loss.
If you have male pattern hair loss, well you can at least understand from my experience
in doing what we do the treatment that we have called Hair Regeneration is a combination
of Acellular matrix and platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Now this combination was developed
when the application was being used for hair transplant to help hair transplants heal better.
A side effect was thinning hair became thicker. We spent a lot of time developing the process
where we can maximize the outcome, minimize the toxicities or inflammation or other issues
that are a little bit complex with this material to the point where we now have systems and
algorithms for both men and women, different ages, different ethnicities, different levels
of hair loss and a process that results in 99% of both men and women having a positive
response. In other words, they stop losing hair. There is activation of hair that was
not growing as well as the restoration of thinning hair that is shed and thicker hairs
grow in.
So another thing to at least understand in the context of your situation is, in terms
of the medical options, you have the option of using finasteride or Rogaine but these
drugs have their limitations. And in our practice, it happened to coincide with a lot of the
fears related to finasteride where people came to us because we offered something that
did not require the support of separate medication or ongoing treatment and we are able improve
that on its own. Hair Regeneration can be very effective. So with that understood, I
think it is important that you meet with qualified doctors who have extensive experience with
this material as time has gone on more and more doctors are offering Acellular matrix
and platelet-rich plasma (PRP). And although I don’t know necessarily what they are doing
specifically, I think you at least find a doctor that you are comfortable with in terms
of their experience and expertise and learn about your options before you move forward.
The key to this treatment, I would say, is very much about timing. We always say that
essentially as long as there is a hair follicle we can make a difference. When people wait
longer and lose more hair, there is less hair follicles to work with. And I think that it
is very important when you are considering an option of choosing a provider or physician
to do this. If something doesn’t work out so well there is potential for losing an opportunity
and it depends on the rate of your progression and the aggressiveness of your hair loss.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!