Thank you for your question. You’ve submitted several very good photos from the top of the
scalp and different views of your hair, describing you’ve been losing hair since 2008 to 2009.
You are concerned about hair thinning and hair loss progression, and ask about the better
option between PRP or hair transplant
I can share with you my approach to situations like yours, which we see every day in our
practice. A little background: I’m Board-certified cosmetic surgeon, and Fellowship-trained oculofacial
plastic and reconstructive surgeon. I’ve been in practice in Manhattan Long Island
for over 20 years, I am also the founder of TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration Centers, which
uses a technology we developed over several years, as a non-surgical alternative to hair
transplant that uses PRP. I will share with you our approach to situations like yours.
It’s very important to understand what your options are and certainly you cover two significant
ones: PRP and hair transplant. We should also cover the option of medical therapies such
as minoxidil and finasteride. Minoxidil is a topical drug with some potential benefit
in prolonging the growth cycle of thinning hairs, and stimulate short-term growth of
finer hairs to help improve coverage. Minoxidil requires daily use, and does not stop the
hair loss progression so you can still have continued thinning, but it does have a role.
The other drug to consider is finasteride, better known by trade name Propecia. This
is drug has been around since the late 90s which blocks an enzyme that converts testosterone
to dihydrotestosterone (DHT). This drug is very popular, and prescribed for many years.
Unfortunately people have become afraid of using this drug, which started several years
ago because of reports of long-term sexual side effect after stopping the drug.
PRP (platelet-rich plasma) does have some benefit in hair loss as it does stimulate
hair growth, but, in my experience, the results of PRP are relatively short-term. The injection
is done so you get a little growth, but you have to come back typically every month to
keep pushing the hair to continue to grow. PRP also doesn’t stop hair loss progression.
Hair transplant, which we have been doing for many years, is probably not the best choice
for you because you have decent hair density. If you actually place hair grafts in areas
of thinning, you will actually lose a lot of your existing hairs.
I’ll discuss the option we developed in our practice called Hair Regeneration. Hair
Regeneration evolved out of treating hair transplant patients with the goal of improving
outcomes in terms of the grafts, as well the healing of the donor area with Acellular matrix,
a material for advanced wound healing. The material serendipitously caused thinning hairs
to actually get thicker in some cases, and hair got thicker in areas where we weren’t
transplanting.
This became very interesting thing for me, so I decided to work on developing a process
as a standalone treatment without hair transplant. I worked on this for several years, and developed
an algorithm and a system. People like yourself come to us around the world for Hair Regeneration,
which is a combination of Acellular matrix and platelet-rich plasma, in a single episode
injection.
In some patients, we do a booster injection to improve the growth of very fine hairs that
were revived and reactivated when the first treatment was done, usually around 15 months
later.
Basically with Hair Regeneration, we’re able to stop progression, regrow hair that’s
not growing where hair follicles are present. There’s a certain percentage of hair follicles
not growing because because of a prolonged resting stage called a prolonged telogen phase.
The treatment stops hair loss progression induces the shed of thinning hairs to allow
for the regrowth of thicker hairs.
What we have observed from 5 to 7 years of experience is that 5 years out, 99 percent
of men and women have had improvement and have been stable. We follow our patients very
closely, so we see them every 3 months. We are able to document this for the duration
of 5 years. It’s been extremely successful for us, and I think someone like yourself
will probably a very good candidate for our technologies such as Hair Regeneration.
Distinguish PRP alone from the Hair Regeneration technology and learn about this method. I
think it is important to not completely discount the possibility of using hair loss drugs,
but unfortunately lot of people are afraid of taking finasteride. Refusing to take it
means you have no option other than allowing hair to fall and disappear, then undergo hair
transplantation. We’ve been able to stop that cycle and help people with Hair Regeneration
to get a sustainable result for at least 5 years. I hope that was helpful, I wish you
the best of luck, and thank you for your question.