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Best Practices with PRP for Hair Restoration
In her research, Amelia K. Hausauer, M.D., has found that treating hair restoration patients with PRP results in hair regrowth and an increase in hair shaft thickness, but she emphasizes the need for setting realistic patient expectations.
This is part 3 in a 4-part series
Part 1: PRP for Hair: A Comprehensive Update
Part 2: First-Line Treatment for Hair Loss
Dr. Hausauer has found in research that treating hair restoration patients with PRP monthly for the first three months, followed by maintenance PRP treatment three months later, or at month six, resulted in an average 30% regrowth in hair with 30% increase in hair shaft thickness.
“So, it can be a meaningful difference,” Dr. Hausauer says. “But I’m very upfront with my patients and set clear expectations. This is not a one-and-done treatment. Hair loss is a chronic process, so you need to continue injection sessions, but there are very few studies that flush out how often someone would want to come in for maintenance therapy. Typically, I would say every four to six months is what people do for maintenance, but that hasn’t been looked at as rigorously and varies person to person.”
Dr. Sclafani injects very small amounts of PRP into areas of thinning. Typically, he injects 0.1 cc to 0.2 cc, about a centimeter apart, into the mid-dermis in the treatment area. He’ll treat most patients every month for three treatments and then recommend patients get a maintenance injection at six months.
PRP is not permanent, according to Dr. Bauman.
“Using the quick, non-invasive HairCheck trichometer at appropriate intervals after treatment, we can measure a patient’s response to PRP (or other therapies) over time and know exactly when to repeat the therapy to maintain the results,” he says.
Dr. Bauman says he has learned that adding extracellular matrix to PRP injections tends to enhance PRP results, including duration of the hair growth results.
“We have used xenografts, human biologic allografts, as well as synthetic [extracellular matrixes] like polydioxanone (PDO) threads with our high-density PRP to provide a stronger and more lasting benefit to our patients,” Dr. Bauman says. “While there is some variability, we’ve been able to extend the results from a single ‘plain’ PRP treatment from four to six weeks to an average of 10 to 14 months in 90% of patients, and in 5% of patients up to two years.”
