A Writeup On How Can PRP Treat Hair Loss?

The PRP treatment helps recover from hair loss. Here are the details about the treatment? Who are eligible for the treatment?

A Writeup On How Can PRP Treat Hair Loss?

Introducing PRP 

To accelerate healing in various areas of the body, doctors use platelet-rich plasma treatment. Here it is known to restore hair growth. 

When hair loss results from androgenetic alopecia, a common condition causing hair follicles to shrink, doctors typically use this treatment. This is called male pattern baldness in males. 

There is some scientific evidence to suggest that it can promote hair growth although PRP is a relatively new approach. 

How doctors use PRP to treat hair loss and what the researchers say about its effectiveness is highlighted in this article. 

So Now, What Is PRP?

To treat androgenetic alopecia, a doctor may suggest PRP. It is important to be aware of the role that platelets play in healing to understand how PRP works. 

Along with red and white blood cells, platelets are a component of blood. The platelets are some of the body’s first responders arriving to stop the bleeding and promote healing when a person sustains a cut or wound. 

They could accelerate healing in case the researchers theorised that if they could extract concentrated platelets and inject them into damaged areas of the body. 

Here the process involved a medical professional taking a blood sample and putting it into a machine called a centrifuge to produce PRP. As it spins at a rapid rate, this separates the components of the blood. 

Thereby the medical professional helps extract the platelets for injection. 

Speeding tissue repair, the PRP here contains a range of growth factors and proteins. Researchers have initially hypothesised that PRP could help regrow hair by reversing the process occurring in androgenetic alopecia as some types of hair loss result from damage to hair follicles. PRP has since then become a popular method of restoring hair growth. 

Is It Really Effective?

Carrying out a systematic review of the research on PRP as a treatment for hair loss, a team of researchers in 2019 has published their findings in the journal, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. 

Including a total of 262 participants with androgenetic alopecia, the analysis ultimately focused on 11 research papers. Most of the studies found that injections of PRP reduced hair loss increasing the diameter of hairs and the density of hair growth according to the authors. 

However, the treatment is controversial as they acknowledged noting that small sample sizes as well as low quality of the research were amongst the limiting factors of their investigation. 

Examining the findings of 19 studies investigating PRP as a treatment for hair loss is another 2019 systematic review featured in Dermatologic Surgery. In total, these studies recruited 460 people. Most studies reported that PRP treatments led to hair regrowth in those with androgenetic alopecia as well as alopecia areata according to the authors of the review. 

Considering PRP to be a promising treatment for hair loss based on their findings, the authors of an additional review of clinical studies published in the International Journal of Women’s Dermatology. 

Thereafter to administer PRP the team has noted that because of various researchers and clinics using different preparations, session intervals, and injection techniques the effects can greatly vary. 

The authors explain it is difficult to conclude that the treatment is effective, as at this point without a standardised protocol for injections. 

The Procedure

An example of a common approach to PRP injections for hair loss is the following. 

Drawing blood from a vein of the arm by a medical professional.

In a centrifuge, place the blood sample. 

Separating its components, the centrifuge spins the blood. 

Extracting the platelets using a syringe by a medical professional. 

Injecting the platelets into the targeted areas of the scalp by a doctor.

Several sessions may be necessary as the entire process may take about 1 hour. A person can usually return to their regular activities without any limitations after receiving PRP treatment. 

Therefore, How Long Does It Last?

For conditions that cause hair loss, PRP is not a cure. A person would then need to receive the multiple PRP treatments over time to maintain hair growth results, for this reason. It is also true in the case of medication commonly used by doctors to treat androgenetic alopecia similar to topical minoxidil or oral finasteride. 

Depending on a person’s condition as well as the results of their initial treatment, the doctor’s recommendations for how often a person should have PRP will vary. Once the hair loss is under control, the doctor may suggest having maintenance injections every 3-6 months. 

What Are The Side Effects?

Headache, mild pain at the injection site, and scalp tenderness are the possible side effects. 

There are a few risks of a reaction to the solution itself, as the PRP solution consists of a person’s own blood components. 

The following side effects are experienced by the people undergoing PRP treatments. 

At the injection site, a mild pain

Tenderness of scalp 

Swelling

Headache

Itching

Temporary bleeding at the injection site

To Summarise It 

PRP can lead to renewed hair growth as researchers have found evidence. Further research is necessary to confirm whether PRP is effective, due to limitations of these studies where the sample sizes are small, as well as variation in the technique and protocol among doctors. 

There is also the need for identifying the best candidates for PRP as also developing universal treatment protocols. 

Anyone with mild-to-moderate hair loss who is interested in PRP should at present ask the doctor whether they are likely to benefit from the treatment. 

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