Category Archives: Platelet-Rich Plasma

Jeffrey Rapaport, Platelet-Rich Plasma, PRP

PRP Goes Mainstream on TV

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I have covered platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy for hair loss a number of times on this blog before. Initially, I was very skeptical about this whole concept, especially since a number of hair transplant surgeons have written about lack of results after their own experimentation. However, during the past year, my opinions have changed slightly as I have:

  • Seen informative pro-PRP and hair growth related videos and forum posts from eminent surgeons such as Dr. Ken Anderson, Dr. John Cole, Dr. Jerry Cooley, Dr. Joseph Greco, Dr. Sam Lam, Dr. Robert Niedbalski, Dr. Jeffrey Rapaport and Dr. Ken Williams among many others.
  • Read a few new published studies in support of PRP for hair loss. Most importantly, these PRP and hair growth related studies have come from many different countries, implying lesser chances of bias and implying potentially successful outcomes across all races of people.

I have therefore decided to give this subject more serious consideration and coverage on this blog. It seems like the way in which a clinic makes its platelet-rich plasma can drastically impact the final results (or lack thereof). I will write more on that in future posts, including analysis of the growth factors involved in the plasma.

For now, the below linked videos are worth checking out. The first is a segment that appeared last week on ABC’s popular Good Morning America (GMA) program. While PRP that is used for medical applications has been covered in numerous TV programs in recent years, it is rare for PRP for hair loss to get this kind of coverage on national TV in the US.

Here are the relevant links: ABC GMA 2 and ABC GMA 3.

The physician in the ABC video segment is Dr. Jeffrey Rapaport, and he has a great video on YouTube about this subject. He even shows us before and after photos of PRP injections into his own balding crown, 19 mins into the video.

The last part of the video is really interesting, and Dr. Rapaport thinks that PRP for hair loss is going to become huge in the coming years. He even opines that many people with limited hair loss will delay or avoid hair transplants and instead come for these PRP injections several times a year.

Joseph Greco, Platelet-Rich Plasma, PRP

Greco Medical Publishes PRP Study Findings

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Update: Based on a reader’s comment to this post regarding frequency of treatment, I contacted Dr. Greco and he said that he tries to get his hair transplant patients to get PRP injections once a year after the transplant. He uses a more purified version of PRP called CRP, and the details of that can be found on his website.

Greco Medical has been a long-time proponent of using platelet-rich plasma (PRP) during hair restoration procedures. In September 2014, The Journal of Dermatologic Surgery in the US published the largest ever PRP study related to hair. Dr. Joseph Greco was one of the four authors of this study.

I am impressed by some of the detailed content on there and they had both male (42) and female (22) participants. It does seem a bit limiting in that only “two independent evaluators” decided on the success or failure of the end results. The two before and after photos in there (female on page 1015, and male on page 1016) are impressive and in all likelihood among the best-case results.

According to the two evaluators, the overall proportion of patients seeing a clinically significant improvement at 6 months post PRP treatment was 40.6% and 54.7%, respectively.

As with low-level laser therapy (LLLT), I have also always been very skeptical about PRP. My skepticism for both has subsided in the past year or two as more supportive studies have come out and as more surgeons have started offering both LLLT and PRP. However, I am still not convinced that either of these technologies offers more than a limited improvement in hair quality and thickness for the average person.

It also does not help when most of these study authors include hair transplant surgeons who are already big proponents of PRP and/or LLLT in their practices. It would be far more believable if researchers, universities and companies that are entirely financially disassociated with PRP published such studies.