Platelets Rich Plasma, or PRP, is an enriched liquid obtained from your blood. It has been used for decades to aid in healing injuries. In the past few years, its cosmetic use as an alternative to hair transplant or other hair regrowth treatments has risen.
But how has this healthtech’s popularity gone up exactly and is it really worth it to get PRP injection in your scalp?
Treatment, Not Cure
Many people tend to mistake the health technology of PRP as a cure for baldness, especially male pattern hair loss. But the truth is that it is a treatment that helps in rejuvenating dormant hair follicles and increasing the health of acting ones.
While not a permanent solution to baldness, it can help slow it down. In some cases, if the baldness speed is low, it can even help counter by promoting more growth than what is lost.
How Does PRP Work?
Plasma and platelets are 2 of the 3 components that make up your blood along with white blood cells.
Medical trials and use have shown that platelets can actually help promote dormant hair follicles into becoming active, along with helping already active ones gain more health.
Medical professionals can take a small sample of your blood (usually 8 to 10 ml) and run it through a standard centrifuge machine. The rapid and high RPM speed forces the blood to separate in its different components. The top clear part is the platelet rich plasma.
Professionals then take it and either use small injections or micro-needling instruments to inject it into your scalp.
Of course, your scalp is numbed before PRP is administered. However, people have reported that it still can be a very painful procedure since there are a lot of nerve endings on the scalp and there is just a few millimeters of the skin above the skull.
With the platelets injected and saturating the scalp, they readily start working towards rejuvenating the follicles and promoting hair growth.
Is PRP Treatment Safe?
Like any medical procedure, PRP is safe if performed by a licensed medical professional. The procedure requires careful administration of PRP into the scalp, as many as two or three dozen jabs in one session. With micro-needling, the jabs increase many folds.
While a topical anesthetic is usually used, many can opt for a subdermal one to increase the numbness. But remember, the more complexity increased, the more chances of something going wrong.
If you are not sure if this is what you want, you can always checkout the health technology news to find the latest scientific studies and make a more informed decision.
As long as you are contacting an experienced and licensed professional, there shouldn’t be much cause of worry for you.
Why Has PRP Treatment Become So Popular?
PRP may not be the latest health technology news to hit the internet, but it certainly has gained popularity due to several reasons.
Cost is a factor that everyone takes into consideration. Other hair treatments such as a hair transplant can be expensive. That doesn’t mean that a PRP hair treatment is itself cheap. Depending on your location, it can cost as much as a thousand Dollars for a session, perhaps even more.
The economic factor aside, PRP is considered by many to be a better option than using other hair products like minoxidil as results have shown it has a greater hair growth response.
In fact, medical professionals often suggest using these in combination for best results. But instead of getting minoxidil injected like PRP, topical creams and shampoos can be used, further decreasing cost involved.
With very small jabs from a hygienic disposable syringe, the chances of contracting an infection is also very low, making it much safer than alternative medical treatments requiring surgery.
The PRP also has a secondary benefit of improving the skin, making it taut and younger looking by removing wrinkles.
The low cost, high rate of response and the added advantage of your forehead being smoother has led to its popularity.
All is Not Gold Though
You will find healthtech news full of the wonderful properties of PRP and how it is not only good for your hair and skin, but has multiple uses like assisting in healing muscle injuries, joint pains and even ligaments.
But you have to understand that this is not a wonder drug or the perfect solution. While a PRP treatment can help your baldness, it is not a permanent solution.
Look at PRP as fertilizer for your hair. Overtime, your hair follicles will absorb all the extra platelets and once done, your normal hair condition will return.
The result is that initially, you will require regular and frequent treatments. This will eventually also rack up your bill. Even then, you will require at least 1 upkeep treatment every three or four months, making it a lifelong and painful procedure if you opt for it.
