Thank you for your question!
You submitted several photos and you stated in your question that you’re a 26-year-old
male. You went to see a leading dermatologist who told you that based on your hair loss
that you’re not a good candidate for a transplant but recommend PRP. And you also stated in
your question that you don’t want to take finasteride or minoxidil because of the side-effects
and now you’re asking about PRP. Well, I can certainly give you my perspective.
I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon and I’m a fellowship trained oculofacial plastic
surgeon practicing in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years. Hair loss treatment has
been a big part of my practice. In fact, we are doing many transplants in a week for many
years and I’m the founder for Trichostem™ Hair Regeneration centers, a system that I
develop in my practice of non-surgical hair loss treatments which does include the use
of platelet-rich plasma (PRP). So I’d like to give you my perspective. In no way I’m
being critical of your doctor’s recommendation about PRP.
In my practice, I use platelet-rich plasma a lot for a lot of indications. I use it for
under eye dark circles. I used it for acne scars. I used it for scar revisions. I use
it for skin complexion improvement. We love platelet-rich plasma in our practice and we
use it a lot. However, in my experience, and this is coming from not only our own use of
platelet-rich plasma for hair loss but for patients who come to us for Hair Regeneration
which is our treatment, who have had platelet-rich plasma done elsewhere.
Well, let’s begin first of all your hair loss situation. Even though you’re asking
is this telogen effluvium, I would suspect that the dermatologist who saw you diagnosed
you with male pattern hair loss. And although you are probably under a lot of stress and
you are probably experiencing telogen effluvium, understand that telogen effluvium is a temporary
condition where you hair does grow back after the stress is over but from the photos you
submitted and from your history, it appears that you have male pattern hair loss.
So understanding that there are different mechanisms and very few that we truly understand
responsible for male pattern hair loss, you’ve essentially eliminated by not taking finasteride,
the option of using something that is shown to help 60% of men using finasteride as a
DHT blocker or dihydrotestosterone. You limit your options but I can tell you that what
we’ve done in our practice and you can learn more about this is we were using a material
called Acellular matrix combining with platelet-rich plasma with the intention of helping people
with hair loss during hair transplantation. The challenge has always been getting the
hair grafts to heal and grow in a way that’s more consistent and maximal in addition to
help the donor area or we harvest the grafts to heal better. Well, a wonderful side-effect
was the thinning hair appeared to get thicker. So I spent a few years to develop a system
and process where we actually, instead of doing a hair transplant, do the Hair Regeneration
injection. Now, platelet-rich plasma is part of this injection but it’s not the only
part.
So if someone like yourself comes to our practice, we actually recommend Hair Regeneration treatment
as a first line treatment. We are able to, with Hair Regeneration, stop the progression
of hair loss, reactivate hair that is not growing and get thinning hair to start growing
thicker. It fills a remarkable void in between the two areas of limited treatment which is
essentially pills and minoxidil, finasteride and minoxidil and surgery. And your dermatologist,
I would agree with because diffuse hair loss is very difficult to manage with transplant
because there isn’t an area that you won’t be losing hair as a side-effect of the transplant.
In addition, a young man in the 20s with a fairly aggressive progression is not going
to have enough hair from a transplant to create the volume you want. So we have been very
fortunate to do this treatment and we have patients who come from around the world who
benefit from this Hair Regeneration treatment and I developed the company Trichostem™
to be able to bring this treatment to outside of our two offices in Manhattan and Long Island.
So I would suggest that you would learn more about this combination treatment. I don’t
feel that PRP alone is effective enough. It may stimulate hair growth but it would not
stop progression and we have been able to show from hundreds and hundreds of patients
first of many years of doing this that we’re able to stop progression and restart growth
of hair that is salvageable. I always say that the earlier we catch somebody, the better
it is because there’s more hair to save. If someone’s lost hair and a general rule
of thumb is that if an area of skin is smooth for 5 years or more then it’s not likely
that we are able to treat that area. So if someone comes to me who’s very shiny bald,
they’re not a good candidate for Hair Regeneration but if someone has hair thinning, men and
women, for men, more than 99% of men respond favorably and respond significant improvement
and for women, more than 90% respond to Hair Regeneration.
So understanding that, learn more about these options of PRP and then the combination treatment
that we do with PRP and see if you are able to access a treatment for you. I understand
how difficult it is, as a young man, we have so many younger people who come from everywhere.
People are applying for visas to have this treatment and it’s been very effective.
So learn more and hopefully you’ll be able to do something to treat your hair loss.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question!