What Makes PRP Therapy So Effective?

PRP Therapy has been around for a while, it’s one of the more popular treatment options for hair loss. In recent years it has become available to patients outside research settings and controlled trials.

However, despite the continued growth in its popularity, PRP therapy still seems to be surrounded by a lot of mystery and misconceptions.

What do we actually know about PRP therapy?

PRP, or platelet-rich plasma, is a modified blood product. Blood is drawn from the patient and spun in a centrifuge to isolate the cells and clotting factors. This process concentrates these components of blood by 25-fold, while eliminating red and white blood cells and platelets.

The PRP which is injected into the patient – at the site of hair restoration – therefore contains a high concentration of plasma and platelets, more than five times that of blood.

What does it do?

Most people know that you need healthy blood to grow new hair. What they don’t realise is that this doesn’t necessarily have to be your own blood. In fact, PRP therapy uses your own blood to stimulate hair growth .

In the normal scalp, a number of growth factors are responsible for maintaining healthy tissue and blood flow in that area. When these factors don’t work properly this leads to thinning hair and eventually balding areas on the scalp.

PRP therapy is able to stimulate the natural growth factors in the scalp to increase blood flow to that area, increasing hair thickness and density.

So what does all this mean for patients?

The bottom line is that PRP therapy works. It’s been shown to be effective at growing new hair through numerous clinical trials .

But how do we know if our particular patient will respond well to this therapy?

There are many factors which determine the likelihood of PRP therapy working for each patient. For example, not everyone can expect as dramatic results as those seen in clinical trials. However, there are a number of indicators that the individual will see success. These include: