how hair loss in African hair is treated is a very legitimate concern
for every patient who comes to my office of African heritage to question whether
any procedure is safe for his or her skin there is a long-established pattern
of errors particularly with different technologies where people with darker
skin suffered avoidable complications when it comes to hair loss there are
some important aspects of several hairstyling traditions which impact how
I approach treating hair loss I'll discuss how I address common causes of
hair loss for people of African descent in my practice I'm Dr. Amiya Prasad I'm
a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic
and reconstructive surgeon I've been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island
for over 20 years I'm also the founder of TrichoStem Hair Regeneration Centers
based on a system we originally developed with PRP and acellular matrix
to help improve healing and outcomes for hair transplants recognizing that
unexpectedly thinning hair became thicker one year and more after hair
transplant surgery I developed a system which has become a standalone
non-surgical hair loss treatment which has impacted the treatment of hair loss
throughout the world including many people of African heritage the most
common cause of hair loss for all people is genetic pattern hair loss also called
androgenetic alopecia until 2011 when we developed our Hair Regeneration process
the gold standard for treating thinning hair was surgical hair transplant
surgical hair transplant is essentially transplanting hair from the back of the
scalp to the front of the scalp or to wherever there is a significant amount
of hair loss African hair being curly and course has
the advantage of being able to cover the scalp more effectively than lighter or
finer quality hair in addition to a detailed history I approach the
evaluation of hair loss for people of African heritage with some specific
questions which can potentially affect the success of our treatment the first
is a question about the use of hair relaxers hair relaxers have historically
used caustic chemicals which caused a hair in the scalp skin to scar resulting
in permanent hair loss another hair styling tradition is the use of tight
braids and long dreadlocks unfortunately these styling traditions
are associated with the condition called traction alopecia where the tension on
the hair follicle compromises the circulation to the point that the hair
is permanently lost we're also seeing more patients who've chosen tattooing or
scalp micropigmentation although scalp micropigmentation can look good in
pictures or video our patients report that as their hair thins the
pigmentation looks little fake there is also a particular scarring condition
which is called central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia also called CCCA
that is seen in people of African background factoring these
aforementioned issues our approach to hair loss remains
overall to be the same as other people with genetic pattern hair loss
TrichoStem Hair Regeneration is a system I developed starting in 2011 where I
used customised mixtures of PRP or platelet-rich plasma with a cellular
matrix which is an advanced wound healing material produced by the company
a cell PRP or platelet-rich plasma is the concentration of wound healing and
growth factors present in the blood which is responsible for healing after
you have an injury like a cut we prepare PRP by drawing the
patient's blood spinning it in a centrifuge to separate the serum with
platelets from the red blood cells our practice pioneered this treatment
resulting in this large-scale interest in the use of PRP as well as a cell for
hair loss in the past few years by other physicians we have applied this
non-surgical treatment to treat pattern hair loss in men and women and have
achieved improvement in hair coverage for over 99% of patients by thickening
thinning hair and stimulating hair growth of dormant hair follicles we've
been able to show that for men and women with thinning hair that TrichoStem Hair
Regeneration is a highly effective alternative to hair transplant surgery
in fact we have used this treatment to improve the results of recently
performed hair transplant as well as hair transplants which were performed
many years prior when it comes to genetic pattern hair loss for African
hair we've seen improvement in hair thickness and hair quality ultimately
resulting in better scalp coverage I make it a point to distinguish what we
do with TrichoStem Hair Regeneration from other injectable hair loss
treatments for example many practices are offering PRP injection on a monthly
basis PRP alone can stimulate hair growth but this benefit usually comes
after multiple injections and the results of even one injection can't be
sustained past a short-term many people come to us after trying PRP alone for
hair loss and seeing minimal results and getting frustrated with how often they
need treatment other hair restoration doctors have adapted their own cookie
cutter single formulation a cell plus PRP these practices apply the same PRP
and extracellular matrix formulation for every patient
and similarly requires several treatment sessions over a few
months practically speaking the pain and inconvenience of multiple treatments
caused many people to abandon these treatment strategies our trichostem hair
regeneration treatment is customized for every patient based on data which I
looked at after treating large numbers of patients from all over the world over
many years I developed a classification system which corresponds with different
formulations and delivery methods and factor in the individuals age gender age
of onset of hair loss degree of hair loss and other medical factors as well
as previous treatments most of our patients have had sustained benefits
from a single treatment for 3 to 5 years we know this because we follow our
patients progress every 3 to 6 months with microscope photos and
high-resolution digital photography some of our patients benefit from a second
treatment we call a booster at around 18 months later from the first hair loss is
managed not cured some patients also are optimally managed with supplementary
pharmaceuticals such as a DHT-blocker like finasteride during my consultation
with men or women of African heritage I do caution that the effectiveness of our
trichostem hair regeneration is limited by the presence of viable hair follicles
if there is no hair follicle there will not be any effect we can't create hair
this means that a long history of using caustic hair relaxers as well as tight
braids or dreadlocks can limit the number of hairs which we can treat
interestingly we have had a significant number of patients who have been
pleasantly surprised with the amount of hair growth they had after our treatment
patients who had scalp micropigmentation are often relieved that the area they
had tattoo doesn't look as fake as it did before our treatment every patient
is an individual and I've had patients who wore wigs who had extensive hair
loss from chemical burns using Herald relaxers although I didn't anticipate
much growth the little growth that they saw made them very happy it didn't
change their need to wear a wig but they were still very excited to see
improvement while there are some differences in hair and hair loss
amongst individuals of African descent hair loss treatment can be performed
with the same principles we apply to Asians and Caucasians it is important to
limit potential further damage to the hair due to hair styling and chemical
straightness male and female pattern hair loss is hardwired in the genetics
with trichostem hair regeneration we help our patients increase their hair
thickness and density for as long as is genetically permissible I can say
without reservation that trichostem hair regeneration is safe and effective for
people of African heritage I hope you found this information helpful thank you
for your question
you