Thank you for your question.
You submitted a question without a photo but you’re asking a question about terminology.
And you’re asking first, is PRP Hair Regeneration permanent and you’re asking if there is
a difference between PRP versus PRP Hair Regeneration. And you’re asking about the permanency.
Well, I can certainly understand the reason for your confusion. There is certainly a lot
of terms that are used in this world of hair loss. So I’ll give you a little bit of guidance
about this.
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’m also the founder of TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration Centers
and this is a technology we developed which did include PRP but also includes something
called Acellular matrix and it actually evolved out of the applications we were doing originally
for hair transplant.
So let’s start first by answering the question about permanence and this is something we
deal with a lot. To make the long story short, when we developed TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration,
this is a company that we started based on developing a process called Hair Regeneration.
And the reason why we called it Hair Regeneration is that when we were doing hair transplant
surgery and we would use this platelet-rich plasma (PRP) extracellular matrix combination
and use it to try to help the wound healing of the donor area as well as the hair grafts,
we noticed periodically that patients who had thinning hair, the hair got thicker. And
so it actually became part of a strategy where we would actually combine the two processes
so that we would do hair transplant with PRP Acellular matrix or Hair Regeneration.
What I did over time is look at this potential of treating people who have hair thinning
without a transplant and to do Hair Regeneration. So for us, Hair Regeneration meant a process
that included PRP or platelet-rich plasma combined in a very specific way with Acellular
matrix, Vitamin D and other elements to a total protocol.
And so I think that, thanks to the popularity of this treatment that we developed, we are
treating people from all over the world and we are essentially popularizing the term Hair
Regeneration. Now of course, it can also be referred to as PRP Hair Regeneration. But
certainly, for our practice and the way we explain our process, we use Hair Regeneration
or now the company that we developed to try to bring this technology close to people outside
of our offices in Manhattan and Long Island. We call it TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration
Centers. The idea is, when you think of the word “regeneration”, it’s basically
you’re dealing with hair, that the follicles are deteriorating and what we’re doing is
we’re regenerating their capacity to grow and to make hair.
So I think that, what you can also distinguish is PRP alone as a standalone treatment for
hair loss versus TrichoStem™ Hair Regeneration, and for us, it couldn’t be more night and
day. When we were developing this treatment and in the regular routine of using PRP in
our practice, as a cosmetic surgeon and someone who does a lot of cosmetic dermatologic treatment,
lasers and injectables, we are constantly trying to develop better ways to help people
improve their skin. So we use PRP routinely every day all day for under eye circles, for
fine lines and wrinkles, for acne scars, for skin tissue rehab, for helping people with
sun damage. My observation is that with skin, we are able to get a certain degree of long-term
benefit. But when it comes to hair loss, PRP alone can have short-term benefit. You can
inject PRP and you can stimulate hair growth. In other words, you can take a hair follicle
that’s not growing due to a prolonged resting stage for example with androgenetic or male
pattern or female pattern hair loss and you can stimulate growth. But will that hair continue
to grow?
In our practice, Hair Regeneration, this combination or PRP, Acellular matrix, Vitamin D and the
protocol I developed over several years, we have 5 years of data showing sustainable benefit
without repeated injections. There are people where we will do another injection around
15 months. We refer to that as the booster injection but it is not a requirement. It
appears that we can help people who have gotten some regrowth from the Hair Regeneration,
very fine hairs, a lot of those hairs can be responsive to another treatment.
In contrast, PRP is routinely recommended to people to have it done monthly or in some
cases weekly and in other cases 3-6 months which means, there is a lot of people who
have different experiences in what they feel is the best thing to do to their patients.
I have found out that sustainability is very important and patients with hair loss going
for treatment where they have injections in their scalp every month, often will get fatigued
and frustrated with not knowing if there’s an endpoint and how long can they really keep
getting injected monthly. So many of them have come to us to have a treatment we refer
to as Hair Regeneration.
So I hope this distinction is helpful to you and gives you an opportunity to learn more
of how to differentiate PRP alone versus Hair Regeneration.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.