You’re doing a lot of PRP for hair loss treatments these days. Tell us how it works, in a nutshell

For this treatment, we take your blood, concentrate the platelets to make the PRP and then inject it back into areas where hair is thinning. For some PRP treatments we use our Meso Gun, but that’s best for larger, flat and more sensitive areas like the chest. For the scalp we would usually use injections. One vial of blood would yield about 20 little syringes of PRP.

PRP for thinning hair is a fairly simple treatment that takes around 45 minutes. 

What trends have you seen over the past five years with your PRP patients?

I have been doing this treatment ever since I started at The Face Place. One trend I first heard about at a PRP conference I attended with Marjorie in Sydney was using PRP in conjunction with hair transplants. A hair transplant doctor shared how they used PRP to improve results. Now I have some patients who’ve had hair transplants coming in for PRP to maintain the new hair. It’s a bit like a garden – you may have new growth but to keep it going you need maintenance.

But for the majority, most people get PRP due to hair loss from stress or hormones. The problem with stress is that seeing an increase in hair fall can create more stress, so then the extra stress and loss of confidence can cause more hair fall – it’s a cycle.

With hormones women are seeing hair loss after pregnancy or due to menopause.

In some cultures, hair is especially important – it’s sacred and can even be seen as a sign of wealth. I have some patients who already have thick hair coming in for PRP. They want even more hair and want to maintain it and prevent thinning in future.

Do you find more men are asking for this or women?

I would say I see more men for this PRP treatment as they are more conscious of hair loss. But it’s something that affects everyone so I definitely treat both.

We treat men of all ages with PRP.

Why do you enjoy doing it?

It’s really rewarding to help someone get their hair back and feel more confident. It really does make a difference in their lives. As a medical clinic, we are not legally allowed to use patient’s testimonials in any kind of promotional form, which is frustrating as we have such great feedback to share! But it is still very nice to get those private emails and comments about the positive changes they see. 

Have you had this treatment?

I haven’t myself but several members our team here do receive this treatment. And of course, whenever we do team training on this we always have several of us lining up to try it in pursuit of thicker fuller hair! We have also done training on some team member’s partners. So you could definitely say it’s popular with us. 

Can anyone have this treatment, at any age?

You can be any age – from your 20s to 80s. The most important thing to remember is that PRP can’t regrow hair where the follicle has died. It won’t work on a completely bald patch of the scalp. It can only revive existing follicles that were just beginning to grow dormant. You need to have this treatment when you start to notice hair thinning or increased hair fall.

The other proviso on this treatment is that you need to make sure your hair is not thinning due to an underlying medical issue. We’re not a diagnostic lab and we can’t check anything based on your PRP. So we recommend you always see a GP and make sure you don’t have, for example, an autoimmune condition that causes hair loss.

The quality of your PRP also depends on how healthy you are too – we can only use what comes out of you. Your PRP will be better if you don’t smoke and have a good diet.

Finally we also don’t want to overpromise, so while we do see great results on some people, it will not 100% work for every person. We will always fully explain this at the consult.

The concentrated platelets or ‘liquid gold’

If you have scalp PRP, can you still use your regular hair-growth products?

Yes, you can use whatever products you like, you would just wait 24 hours before washing your hair. There is no downtime after this treatment, you could go right back to work and no one would notice. If you have any tenderness, you would just take Panadol. 

Once your patients have had success with PRP, how often do they need to come back?

Once they have had the three consecutive treatments (our recommended course), they would just need one treatment annually to maintain their results.