Thank you for your question.
You submitted your question without a photo. And essentially, you’re asking in your question
about the right frequency in which to get PRP treatments for hair loss. And you state
that some places are recommending every 4 weeks, some places are recommending every
8 weeks. You’re asking will the effect wear off if you don't do them more closely together.
So I certainly understand this confusion since there is now truly a growing popularity in
the use of PRP for hair loss.
A little bit of background, I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial
plastic and reconstructive surgeon. I have been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island
for over 20 years. I am also the founder of TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration Centers. This
is is a system we developed 7 or 8 years ago using PRP and a material called Acellular
matrix to help men and women with genetic pattern hair loss. And it has been very successful
and we treat patients from all over the world. So I certainly can share with you my perspectives
on PRP as well as what kind of effect it has on the treatment of hair loss.
So to begin with, I think that one of the challenges that faces most physicians today
who are relatively new and I would argue that it really accounts for the majority of physicians.
Because frankly, when we were doing PRP for either skin rejuvenation, as well as for hair
loss, there was a lot of resistance in a lot of our colleagues and a lot of dismissiveness.
Well fortunately, medical literature and some of the dermatology publications have recognized
what was already obvious to us that PRP does have benefit at many places particularly in
skin and hair loss. The question remains with those who are offering PRP as to what the
optimal protocol is.
And I think the reason why there’s confusion is because hair loss is not, in terms of hair
loss treatment to individuals, it’s individualized treatment. And what I mean by that is you’re
dealing with male and female pattern hair loss. You’re dealing with a wide range of
age of onset, of degrees of progression and rates of progression. So constantly, I see
how people are trying to figure out a “one-size-fits-all” approach to treating hair loss.
So to begin with, just a little bit of background on how we developed our treatments, we were
using Acellular matrix and PRP to help our patients heal after hair transplant. We wanted
the grafts to heal better and the donor area to heal better. Well, a very pleasant side-effect
was that thinning hair became thicker in some of these patients. Over the course of several
years, I developed systems and protocols based on clinical examinations and watching our
patients every 3-6 months to develop protocols to help both men and women with hair loss.
Further at this point in time, I’ve developed a classification system for hair loss because
I think that one of the frustrations that we all have when we don't see as a good of
an outcome as we expect, we wonder why. Well we developed a system based on gender, age,
age of onset, degree of progression, rate of progression and other medical variables.
And I think this is what gets confusing when it comes to just using PRP alone.
The literature has already substantiated that PRP has many valuable effects on hair loss.
However, what is not being factored in is the individual hair loss profile. Some people
may respond better than others. And currently, the prevailing opinion is that PRP works 50%
of the time. I think that the numbers are too small and the experience is too little
to really make a statement like that.
I think that what you have to understand is that PRP alone has a certain stimulatory effect
on hair growth. The mechanisms are going to be much more than what we currently know.
But in terms of timing, this is a challenge to the sustainability. Why do I say that?
Because when we see patients who have gotten PRP injections done elsewhere, typically they
will have gone for once a month treatment for about 4 months. After which they feel
very frustrated because they’re dealing with the discomfort of getting injections
most of the time without anesthetic in the scalp and they’re not seeing a horizon as
to what the outcome will be and for how long. Basically, it’s very challenging to have
a sustainable improvement when you have patients come every month for scalp injections and
scalp injections can be very uncomfortable.
In our treatment strategy, what we do is we developed a treatment plan based on the individual’s
hair loss profile. And what I think is the take home message is that hair loss is managed.
It is not cured, it is managed. And based on the hair loss profile, you use multiple
tools to help manage hair loss and you customize the plan.
So when we see our patients, we generally will do maybe one injection for the duration
for several years. We may do two injections and the second injection called the booster
injection anywhere between 12 to 24 months after the first. But for a practice like ours,
TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration treatment center, we treat people from all over the
world and it’s impractical to have people come back monthly. So I think that we’ve
just been further along in our development in our own internal clinical observations
and developments.
And so I would say that, to answer your question, without a full evaluation, I would say that
you can to a degree expect PRP to cause short-term stimulation of hair growth. But at the same
time, you can look at other variables that also impact the progression of hair loss.
So I think this is a discussion to have with the doctor. I think you should ask how much
experience do they have doing this. What’s the outlook whether it’s the 4-week or 8-week
plan, what can you expect and what else can you do. I think that very often people just
get frustrated and what I want to do is to make people understand that there’s more
to this than just frequent PRP injections. Hair loss is more about management and not
just a single approach that can work some of the time for some people and not work out
for others. There’s much more to this.
So I think it’s important that you do more research and learn about platelet-rich plasma
and Acellular matrix and protocols and most importantly, learn about the experience of
the practitioner that you intend to go with so they can guide you based on their experience.
We’re using our experience going for 7-8 years that has really informed the evolution
of our treatment system such that we are where we are today from frontline real time experience.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.