Thank you
for your question.
You submitted your question without a photo and you’re basically asking, what is the
best type of PRP to treat hair loss? And you state in the substance of your question that
you’re reading about things about Acell and PRP and there are variables like the way
it’s mixed. What are the questions essentially that you should be asking? Are there certain
methods that should be avoided?
Well, you’re certainly asking very relevant questions for this current timeframe. I’ll
give you a little bit of background about how I would explain this to you and for patients
who come to our practice. 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, a system that we developed with PRP and Acellular
matrix that began more than 7 years ago that we developed over the course of this time
and arguably, can be reflective of the largest number of patients treated and a system that
evolved from clinical data derived from treating so many people over this time and looking
at results critically.
So to help you understand the evolution of PRP and Acellular matrix. First of all, for
the longest time, the majority, I would argue that many of my colleagues have been vocal
about this who dismissed PRP, who dismissed Acellular matrix as to help people with hair
loss. And I think certainly, skepticism is important for anything that is particularly
new that is introduced as an option to help people.
The limitation for any hair loss treatment regardless whether it’s a pharmaceutical,
whether it’s an injection, whether it’s surgery is that there is no cure. There is
no cure for hair loss. What we’re dealing with hair loss is 95% of the time for men
and women is androgenetic alopecia, male or female pattern hair loss that is genetic.
It’s in the DNA. What we have essentially are strategies to manage hair loss.
So when we see our patients at this current time, again deriving information from a lot
of experience and along the way, especially in the early years, a lot of setbacks and
a lot of obstacles that were overcome in developing a system. Now what we do essentially is not
just doing an injection and this is something that’s very important to distinguish is
that we take care of patients with hair loss, we’re managing hair loss. When we see our
patients, we look at them from the perspective of what is the most optimal strategy to help
them manage the progression of their hair loss particularly if it’s genetic pattern
hair loss.
Everyone comes to the table with certain variables: gender, age, age of onset of hair loss, rate
of progression of hair loss, degree of hair loss, previous procedures and therapies for
hair loss, as well as the overall medical context, the hormone levels, anemia, stressors.
When you have so many variables, then one size doesn't fit all.
At the current time, thanks to some publications in the dermatology literature about PRP, there’s
become this proliferation of people offering PRP for hair loss, PRP with a specific formula
using Acell for hair loss and what I think is ultimately going to be an awakening for
the colleagues who are offering these procedures as one size fits all or I call it the shotgun
approach is that people with hair loss need management more than just having them come
for an injection every month or every 3 months to try to maintain their hair.
Every patient has a profile and that profile in our practice is used to help predict what
kind of outcome they’ll have. And again, we’ve developed these profiles based on
clinical experience. When we treat our patients, we developed what we call a treatment plan.
And part of that treatment plan is the strategy of these injections as to when these injections
are done if more than one injection is done as well as the timeframe in which we will
follow our patients. But routinely, we see our patients every 3-6 months and it’s part
of the treatment. There’s no additional cost to that. When we see our patients, we
are measuring. We are using microscope photos, we’re doing standardized photography and
we spend at least 30 minutes or more every visit after the injection to analyze their
outcomes and results and to give them guidance based on our experience.
And since I’ve used the word experience a lot, I would say that the thing to ask to
the practitioner is what’s their experience. What is the plan in order to see whether or
not their strategy is going to add value to your situation. Again, understanding that
there is no hair loss cure but there are strategies for doing this type of treatment and a way
to optimize the outcomes and prolong essentially the lifespan of the hair that is destined
otherwise to progress downward and disappear.
When we look at what it is that Acellular matrix and PRP and what we call TrichoStem™
Hair Regeneration does, we’re reactivating hair that isn't growing. That is by definition
because hair thinning is characterized by the prolongation of the resting phase which
means that there is a significant number of hairs that are just not growing and shortening
of the active growing phase. So, it has been our observation in certain clinical profiles
that the prolongation of the lifespan is actually beneficial because otherwise, the lifespan
of that hair would have been shorter. And the stimulation of growth then means that
there is more hair to the total inventory that is providing best scalp coverage. The
thinning hairs actually become thicker and those thicker hairs contribute to the scalp
coverage. Ultimately, it is maximizing of whatever your inventory is. So the earlier
we treat someone, the better it is. The most challenging patients are the patients who
have very early onset, very aggressive progression or people who have more advanced progression
and are close to the end of their inventory.
Now certainly, there are surprises and there are a lot of people who have more advanced
hair loss that have very impressive results. But nonetheless, I think that when you do
your research, you want to learn about the experience and what is the practice philosophy.
Are they going to be there for you to evaluate? What happens if there is a setback if you
don't get the results that you were hoping for? No medical procedure comes with guarantees
but you try to work with probabilities. That is the practice of medicine is to maximize
probabilities to get the best outcomes. But again, hair loss is managed. And so understanding
that, I think it’s important to have that dialogue with the doctor that you are considering
for your treatment.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.