Hair restoration treatments have drastically improved in the past few decades – both male and female pattern hair loss can now be treated with a variety of procedures. Treatment for hair loss isn’t limited to hair transplants anymore, and even hereditary hair loss can be easily managed with innovative treatments for hair loss. One of the treatments that have seen a lot of popularity recently is PRP hair injection, which has gained widespread use because of its effectiveness against more stubborn types of hair loss like female hair loss and androgenetic alopecia.
So if you’re experiencing thinning hair, can one PRP hair injection turn your case around? In this case, not really. While PRP injections have shown success as an effective hair loss treatment for various hair disorders, the effects of the treatment don’t work overnight. For cases of hair shedding or noticeable hair loss, you may be able to experience some immediate short-term effects like a lessening of hair fall, but for the complete effects of your treatment, you’ll need more than one PRP hair injection.
How Does PRP Hair Injection Work?
PRP (platelet-rich plasma) hair injections are a type of cosmetic injectable that aims to address hair conditions in men and women without the usual difficulty with most treatment options. PRP hair injection has been shown to have some degree of efficacy in treating the following conditions:
- Androgenetic and androgenic alopecia (male and female-pattern baldness)
- Sudden hair loss
- Weakened hair strand formation
- Skin rejuvenation for thicker hairs
- Chronic or acute telogen effluvium
- Receding scalp hair
- Poor scalp health
PRP hair injections rely on the regenerative capabilities of platelets, which are a specialized type of cell found in your blood. The primary role of platelets is to clot the blood and prevent unwanted blood flow whenever you get an injury, but they also play a crucial part in the overall wound healing and immune system response in your body.
Normally, these platelets lie dormant in your system and don’t really play too much of an active role unless there’s been damage to your blood vessels or your blood needs clotting in some way. PRP treatments get around this limitation by increasing the number of platelets you have in an area, which triggers the wound healing and cell regrowth response.
In most PRP injections, a pure PRP concentrate is injected straight into the area that needs treatment. PRP hair injections are focused on regrowing the hair on your scalp, as well as improving overall hair health and increasing the amount of hair that you have.
The PRP Hair Injection Process
One of the best benefits of the PRP hair injection procedure is that it’s non-invasive and doesn’t really require much from the patient. Unlike hair transplantation, cosmetic surgery, and other similar treatments, the injection therapy associated with PRP hair treatment is simple and can be done in a single cycle of treatments.
Here’s how it works.
Extraction
The first step in any PRP treatment is to obtain a sample of the patient’s blood. This is crucial because your own blood is the best candidate to withdraw platelet concentration from, and the resulting PRP sample is fully biocompatible with your body once it’s placed back in your system.
Biocompatibility is a huge part of why PRP hair treatments can be so effective – unlike cosmetic options such as hair growth medication, there’s virtually zero chance that your body will reject or be incompatible with the PRP treatment. Since it’s using your own cells for the solution, your body can easily accept the PRP serum, which allows it to go straight to work instead of fighting your own body’s cells.
The blood sample is usually drawn from one of the venous systems on your body, like the arm or the thigh. Because PRP injections are more effective with a higher PRP concentration, you’ll need a fair amount of blood to get the right amount needed to get a usable PRP serum.
Processing
After the blood has been withdrawn, it’s processed to remove all the other extraneous cells from the sample. These include red blood cells, white blood cells, and other compounds that are normally found in your blood. The aim of this process is to end up with a sample that’s as close to pure platelets as possible since more platelets make for a more effective solution overall.
Processing is usually done in a specially-made centrifuge, where your blood is spun at high speeds to separate the different densities of the compounds into their separate layers. The process for platelet extraction usually varies from provider to provider depending on their machine, but the crucial component is to isolate all the platelets into their own layer, which is siphoned off and made into a PRP serum.
Sometimes, this process can also differ depending on the kind of PRP injection that you want. Some providers keep the white blood cells in the solution to better promote immune response, while others add a fibrin matrix to make sure the platelets bond better when they’re injected. For the exact effects of these changes, it’s best to consult your provider.
Injection
Finally, the PRP serum is injected into your scalp and other parts of your head. Depending on your specific hair condition and the effects that you want, you may require more than a single injection to make sure that your results stick around.
PRP hair injections have different durations when it comes to how long they take effect and how long your results last. Because every person’s body is different, their PRP serums will not always be the same as another patient’s. However, most patients generally report seeing favorable results from their PRP treatments after a few injections, though it can take a while for all the results to show up.
It’s important to remember that PRP hair injection doesn’t just involve injecting the solution wherever on your scalp: your provider needs a thorough understanding of how your hair grows on your head to make sure the new growth settles in properly. This expertise (and the need for the right equipment) is just one of the many reasons why you need to find the right PRP provider.
Why You Don’t See Results Immediately
So given that the results of PRP treatments are more or less guaranteed, why do the effects not show up after a single injection – and is there a way to change this process? The relatively slow pace of PRP hair injection results can be attributed to three things:
- A natural derivative: unlike laboratory formulas such as Rogaine, PRP serums are naturally derived from your body and will have less drastic effects
- Platelets aren’t instantaneous: the immediate effects of platelets don’t respond as fast to hair regrowth in comparison to actual injuries like cuts
- Your hair takes time to grow: while the effects of PRP hair treatment can start taking effect soon after your injection, actual hair growth takes weeks or months
The effects of PRP hair injection are relatively quick for a non-laboratory formula since it’s derived directly from your body – however, this doesn’t mean that the results will happen the next day. There’s really no way to speed up the results of this process since this relies on how well your body’s cell regrowth mechanisms work – which is another factor that can be affected by anything from genetics to your environment.
Get High-Quality Medical Tools And Supplies From FACE Med Store Today
Platelet-rich plasma treatment has shown promising results as long-term therapy for hair loss, but it’s important to remember that it (like any type of hair loss treatment) doesn’t work overnight. Your hair follicle will benefit from the additional growth factors that PRP hair injection will boost in your scalp, but it can’t regrow your hair shaft quickly. Because your blood cells need time to start with your hair regrowth, you can reasonably expect good results within a few weeks to a few months after your treatment – all you need to do is to be patient.
With extensive experience in helping supply cosmetic practices with all the tools and supplies they need for hair treatment, FACE Med Store is proud to announce that we’re now providing our services to the general public. Whether you need prescription medications, hyaluronic acid solutions, and other essentials to get strong and healthy hair, we’ll always have something in our stock that you can use.
For more information about us and our stocks, visit our website today.
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