I Got PRP Treatment for Hair Loss and This Is What I Learned

Here's a little-known fact about men: we care more about hair than we let on. A lot more. Whether it's body hair (especially on our backs...), pubic hair or facial hair, we pay special attention to our grooming habits to tame these sometimes-unsightly hairs. But there's one place where a lack of hair can drive us insane with insecurity: our scalps.  Male pattern baldness is no joke. Many men grieve the loss of their hair like their lost youth, and for good reason: both men and women seem to associate long, flowing locks with health and vitality. In short, if we can do something about hair loss, we will. RELATED: Best Hair Loss Products So it should come as no surprise that there are seemingly endless new and interesting developments in the hair loss category for men all the time. New low-level lasers keep coming out, pills and topical treatments from easy DTC companies, even new hair transplant surgeries that look nothing like those hair plugs from years ago. Here’s the question though: If there are so many treatments for thinning hair and hair loss, why go with PRP therapy as a hair loss treatment? Because like so many of the other treatments gaining popularity among men — Botox, fillers, CoolSculpt — this is a noninvasive treatment option to help maintain the hair I have and prevent further hair loss rather than try to go back and fix the problem after the fact. And, I can do it on my lunch break. According to RealSelf, a resource site for information and reviews on cosmetic procedures, the average cost of hair restoration by way of PRP injection is about $2,150. Compare that to the RealSelf estimate of $7,075 for full-on hair transplant surgery and you can bet I’d much rather drop the cost for PRP on my credit card now rather than waiting until I need the more expensive (and painful) treatment. “Cost is a big factor for all of my patients,” explains board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic surgeon Dr. Ariel Ostad. “So you can argue, why not try [an expensive at-home laser device] one time and you have it at home forever.” The red light emitted from these laser devices as a treatment have been shown to increase blood supply, which is great when targeting hair loss, but the results of this method are very inconsistent. “That's the main issue with [laser devices], otherwise we'd be recommending them to every patient.” “This is something in my 23 years of practice I run into,” he continues. “We want to be helpful to every patient, but we also want to do the treatment properly, and that's why you're going to find such a discrepancy in terms of pricing where some places can offer you like PRP treatment from $600 all the way up to like $1,500 [for one session], and that's just a matter of what technique they are using.” So the problem with using one of these lasers is that you won’t know if it works until you buy it and try it, and for almost $800 on Amazon (assuming you don’t get scammed) I, for one, am not so eager to take that leap of faith and then get discouraged when I don’t see results. “Then the next line of therapy really is PRP … There's PRP therapy and then there's hair transplant,” Ostad says, and as we know, those ain’t cheap. Now that we have covered how much it costs compared to laser and hair transplants, what exactly is PRP therapy? What Is PRP Therapy? PRP stands for platelet rich plasma and is that golden liquid found in your blood that’s full of growth factor that when concentrated, can provide some major benefits. “There are two components to our blood,” Ostad says. “There's plasma, which is a clear component to our blood … and then there's the red component to our blood, which is made of red blood cells.” RELATED: I Got a Brazilian Wax for Men and This Is What I Learned The history of using platelet rich plasma injection for hair restoration and hair-loss prevention is relatively new, as the science has been around for decades in other fields of medicine. In a Krager-published study from “Skin Appendage Disorders” by Alves Rubina, Grimalt Ramon, the history of the practice dates back to the 70s and is first used in the field of hematology, or the study of blood. “Hematologists created the term PRP … to describe the plasma with a platelet count above that of peripheral blood, which was initially used as a transfusion product to treat patients with thrombocytopenia,” the study explains. “Ten years later, PRP started to be used in maxillofacial surgery as PRF (platelet-rich fibrin). Subsequently, PRP has been used predominantly in the musculoskeletal field in sports injuries.” Platelet rich plasma therapy has been successful in treating and strengthening the healing process of everything from soft tissue injuries, tennis elbow, and joint pain to plantar fasciitis to chronic pain associated with chronic tendon injuries, rotator cuff tears and numerous other injured tissue and orthopedic conditions.  Cut to present day, when PRP is gaining popularity in dermatology by achieving such medical successes as tissue regeneration, wound healing, scar revision, skin rejuvenation and in our case, alopecia, otherwise known as hair loss. How Does PRP Hair Restoration Work Getting into the weeds of hair loss and hair restoration could send us off into a tangent worthy of its own article (of which we have plenty already) so I will keep this short and simple. Injecting PRP into the scalp stimulates the stem cells in the hair root to wake up the hair follicle that may have otherwise stopped churning hair out, resulting in a higher chance of hair regrowth in the patient. “PRP can grow baby hairs, strengthen the existing hairs, and thicken them. By thickening them, they take up more space and cover more of the scalp,” Ostad explains. “Wherever there is an injury, platelets go there and not only do they stop bleeding, but they release these granules of growth factors that get rid of inflammation and heal the area.” RELATED: Best Hair Dye for Men “Additionally, plasma has vitamins, nutrients, and protein, so it has all these additional things beyond platelets,” he continues. “[For example] someone once thought of taking platelets and injecting them and they were actually able to heal patients [with sports injuries]. And now that's routinely done for people who have sports injuries, whether it's an Achilles tendinitis or inflammation in the knee.” And finally, because platelets have growth factors, and growth factors help stimulate collagen and generate new collagen to grow, PRP has made its way into dermatology and is now used successfully for hair loss treatment. “It doesn't work for everybody, but it works for a majority of people,” says Ostad. “I would say conservatively it works for [about] three out of four people. We pick our patients carefully. I would never do it on someone who has end stage hair loss — it would be a waste.” Why Get PRP for Hair Loss? OK, so I’m not really losing my hair … yet. But judging by my family history, I could make a case that it’s only a matter of time. That being said, I don’t have the thick, full head of hair I had coming out of college all those years ago. Genetics, as well as epigenetics, are the most common components of hair loss. Ostad explains: “Epigenetics just means the influence of the environment on our genes, and when I say environment, I’m talking about stress. As we [enter] our 20s [stress] reality hits. You have to go get a job, or a car or an apartment. So all those stresses release stress hormones.” The main stress hormone, as Ostad put it, is cortisol. “Cortisol is shaped much like testosterone and in the body it gets converted to testosterone,” Ostad continues. “If someone has a familial genetic predisposition, that release of cortisol induces more testosterone and that can unfortunately initiate this hair loss.” Ostad offers up his average age for patients is in the range of 30s to 40s, so as I start creeping into my late 30s, my goal is to get ahead of the hair loss situation. Ostad told me I was just about the perfect candidate for the PRP hair loss treatment procedure. RELATED: I Got Botox to Stop Sweating and This Is What I Learned “[A good candidate is] someone who’s young, who's noticing some thinning and may also see some regression of the hairline.” Bingo. I’m already using over-the-counter topical hair loss products as well as taking supplements and prescribed hair loss medication which so far, has kept any major hair loss at bay. “So you're like the typical individual, someone in their 30s who is beginning to get a little more aware of the fact that the hair's kind of thinning — that they don't have that maximum density that they used to have in their early 20s and you’ve become a little self conscious of it,” said Ostad. Right again. “And then especially if somebody has a family history and it doesn't have to be ... a female dominant kind of gene [such as your mother’s father]. It actually can happen on both sides [of the family].” And once again, me. So if somebody has a family history of thinning hair or genetic hair loss such as androgenic alopecia — mother, father, aunts, or uncles — then those individuals are even more at risk of having hair loss themselves. “Even in someone like me [in my 50s] PRP will help in terms of not only keeping what I have, but it's kind of stimulating some hair growth,” Ostad said. By doing this PRP hair restoration treatment — even once — the benefits of what I’m already doing should increase, not only improving hair density and making the hair I have look and feel healthier, but also, potentially, causing new growth. What Is PRP for Hair Loss Treatment I got into a lengthy conversation with Dr. Ostad and I have to be honest, his “bedside manner” was exemplary. I couldn’t have been happier with the choice I made to go with him. He walked me through the process, what to expect and how it would feel — which we will get to later. I’m not squeamish when it comes to needles except for that brief moment the needle actually goes into my vein. After that, I’m good-to-go. Luckily, that was one-and-done, even though the nurse drawing my blood pulled two vials full, or about 25 cc’s in total. As I held the gauze over my tiny pinprick of a wound, my blood was spun in a centrifuge for about five minutes. This separates the blood from that sweet golden juice — the PRP. As the centrifuge quietly hummed, Deirdre Murphy, the nurse who drew my blood, started to lay out small syringes that would be used to inject my own growth factor-full PRP back into my skull. She grabbed one. Then another. Then a third. She kept going until she had laid out 13 syringes. Thirteen! If that doesn’t sound like a lot of syringes to you, I don’t know what to tell you man, because that is a lot of stuff going into my skull if you ask me. How Did PRP for Hair Loss Feel? “Your scalp, and your face in general, is just a sensitive area,” Murphy said. “So I like to prepare patients for that and just make sure that you're fully aware that it's uncomfortable. I've seen people go through it and it's quick and over and they're like, ‘Oh fun, done.’” RELATED: Into Pain? Try One of These BDSM Toys OK guys, I have to be straight with you here: It hurt like a motherfucker. No lie. And not like a tingle-tingle ouchie, but more like “Holy shit! What’s happening!?” The scalp is rich in nerves and bone and not too much else. So just imagine the sound of a needle as it’s puncturing the thin skin of the scalp over and over again as you wonder: “Do I really need hair this badly?” That said, the painful process was a total of between two and three minutes. That was it. Thirteen syringes in under three minutes. The pain, however, did not completely stop there. It persisted. It felt like a special kind of headache you just need to nap off. However, when I got back to the office, I took some Tylenol and the pain slowly faded away. After about an hour, I didn’t feel any pain at all, and it never came back. Note for next time (and for your first time): Take some Tylenol before the procedure. Opt for acetaminophen since it’s not a blood thinner like a lot of its pain-reliever counterparts. My PRP for Hair Loss Results I was told I couldn’t wash my hair for 24 hours and to leave my head alone (no scalp massages or I don’t know, aggressive head-contact sports) for 48 hours. After that, I was free to live my life as I did pre-PRP. I was also told I’d see some results instantly: “[The plasma is] actually thickening the hair that you currently have right now [and] makes it really nice and shiny and beautiful,” Murphy told me after the procedure. “Because your platelets [are] what's actually helping to rejuvenate cells in that area.” Ostad added: “People who do it, the majority of them love their results. They really are happy with the improvement. It's not a dramatic change, so it's not going to give you results of a hair transplant. But for people who are looking to not only stop the hair loss, it's going to work a lot better than [topical minoxidil] Rogaine and Propecia [alone].” Most doctors recommend having a series of three-to-five sessions done to get the most out of the procedure, with annual maintenance treatments thereafter to maintain the results, but even one visit can make a difference if you’re like me: looking to combat thinning hair from a place of prevention. It’s been a few months since the treatment and after getting a haircut close to the scalp to track results, I have noticed some of the fine hairs we discussed seem to be trying to find their light. Knowing that I’m taking other precautions to keep my hair where it is gives me confidence that it isn’t something I’ll have to worry about anytime soon. You Might Also Dig: How to Cut Your Own Hair How to Maintain a Bald Head Why Men Go Bald (and What to Do About It)