Hair shedding after PRP treatment. Why is this happening? (Photo)

I appreciate your question.
I usually wait 6-8 weeks between treatments.
You can see some hair loss and shock from the treatemtnts.
This should return and should be even thicker.

The best way to assess and give true advice would be an in-person exam.
Please see a board-certified plastic surgeon that specializes in aesthetic and restorative plastic surgery.

best of luck!

Dr Schwartz

Thank you for your question. You’ve submitted several photos, and describe that based on positive information about PRP for hair loss, you had three separate sessions of PRP injections over the course of three months. You state you have continuously shed hair since the first month, and it’s getting worse going into the third month where you describe fifty to one hundred hairs being lost, you see the white part of the hair follicle, and you want to know what is going on.

I can give you some perspective as a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon performing hair transplant for over twenty years. I’m also the founder of TrichoStem Hair Regeneration Centers which is based on a technology and method we developed called Hair Regeneration using acellular matrix, or extracellular matrix combined with platelet-rich plasma (PRP).

The most likely reason I can come up with based on the photos you submitted iis that if you have a genetic pattern of hair loss that is aggressive, and is manifested by rapid shedding of hairs. It is important to understand that PRP alone won’t stop hair loss. PRP, or platelet-rich plasma, derived from your own blood has been shown to help grow hair that may be dormant in the telogen phase of hair growth, and may stimulate growth, but that’s different from stopping pattern hair loss.

We are very active in using PRP. We use PRP on the face, on the skin, scars, and as part of our treatment called Hair Regeneration. The distinction is straightforward - when we treat someone with Hair Regeneration treatment, we don’t have them come in every month, we do the injection and observe them for eighteen months. For 99% of our male patients, we are able to stop hair loss, thicken thinning hair, and in some patients even improve on the first results by doing another injection. For our female patients, we have more than 80% response where we stop the hair loss, stop the progression, and thicken the hair.

Shedding can be a part of the hair regrowth cycle. If you have a thin hair, it has to shed before a thicker hair comes in, but this only applies to our treatment. We have patients who come to us from around the world, which is one of the reasons we started a company to help bring this technology closer to people.

This is my opinion, and I don’t want to disrespect any doctor doing PRP treatment, because I know they are doing their best with what they know and what they have - but PRP alone will not stop pattern hair loss.

It is possible that your hair is manifesting pattern hair loss. It is not unusual for a younger person, as young as eighteen, to lose hair very quickly, and can be bald by the time they are twenty-two. There are different hair loss patterns, and different levels of progression that happen at different ages. A lot of this can be seen by looking at your family history.

Getting PRP treatment done frequently can cause something called shock. Shock is from scalp trauma and inflammation from the injection. We know this especially from hair transplant - a few months after the transplant you can get what is called shock loss caused by the surgical trauma. The hairs that were grafted can shed, and the adjacent hairs that were not grafted can also shed. You can look like you have less hair than from before the transplant. Similar trauma from the injections can cause shock loss, so you should discuss it with your doctor.

I can’t emphasize enough the need to understand that PRP doesn’t stop pattern hair loss. It can help someone with slow progression to possibly thicken up their hair. However, the people that come to us, find it really tiresome to get scalp injections every month. This leads a lot of people to stop PRP treatment, and then they learn more about alternatives like Hair Regeneration.

Meet with your doctor, learn more about Hair Regeneration and similar treatments, and then hopefully you can intervene early enough to help you save your hair.

I hope that was helpful, and thank you for question.

PRP is not a cure for genetic balding so you may continue to see more hair loss. If you have further hair loss after treatment see your doctor for a recheck.