Medically known as alopecia, hair loss is a common and often unwelcome condition, affecting your appearance and even your self-esteem. Androgenic alopecia affects both women and men, resulting in thinning and lost hair.
You can also lose hair due to medical conditions that affect hair follicles. One thing that many hair loss patients agree on is that they’d like their hair back. A regenerative medicine treatment called platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy may be the answer.
Dermatologist and Mohs micrographic surgery specialist Jennifer A. Baron MD offers PRP hair restoration at her San Jose, California, practice. It’s a drug-free way to revitalize underperforming hair follicles, resulting in thicker, fuller hair in thinning areas.
Platelets are the blood component perhaps best known for their ability to form clots at the bleeding site. In addition to this, platelets carry growth factor hormones. These chemical messengers are part of the healing processes throughout your body, and when you’ve got thinning hair, a surplus of growth hormones may provide the impetus for more efficient hair growth, adding fullness to weak spots.
Platelet-rich plasma therapy can medically provide a surplus of growth factor hormones to a treatment area, in this case, the portion of your scalp where your hair is thinning. PRP starts from a sample of your own blood. This makes it an autologous technique since Dr. Baron uses your own tissue as part of the treatment.
Upon taking a sample of blood about the same size as an ordinary blood test, it’s mechanically separated to extract platelets and an amount of plasma to create a solution that contains a concentration of platelets, more than can be delivered to a location through ordinary blood flow.
After injection at the site of thinning hair, PRP promotes fuller hair in two ways. PRP reduces the rate of hair loss while also encouraging the growth of new hair. Clinical studies show that PRP represents a simple, low-risk treatment for androgenic alopecia without the time and expense of a hair transplant.
PRP generally only uses components of your own blood. You don’t need to worry about compatibility since it’s an autologous treatment. The only risks associated with PRP treatment are similar to those with other injection-based treatments, such as allergy shots. Some people may suffer local irritation from the needle itself. There’s a theoretical risk of infection, though this is minimized with standard sterilization practices.
Increasing your margin of safety, Dr. Baron reviews your medical history and investigates the possible causes of your hair loss. This could require pretreatment blood testing to determine if PRP therapy is right for your hair loss condition.
Find out more about this exciting and effective hair restoration technique by contacting Dr. Baron’s office. You can book a consultation by calling 408-418-8780. The time to slow and reverse hair loss is now, so schedule your visit today.
