Skination -The Skin, Aesthetic and Hair Clinic

Hello everyone!

I am Dr. Swati Agarwal. So today again we have a video for all of you. Today I'll be talking about PRP for hair loss. So what does PRP stand for? PRP is platelet-rich plasma. In this, patient’s own blood that is it is an autologous treatment in which the patients suffering from hair loss his/her own blood is taken and from that the platelet-rich concentrated plasma is extracted. How does PRP help in hair loss? Basically, when patient's small amount of blood is withdrawn, say roughly, 10-15 ml and from that blood PRP is extracted and injected into the patient's scalp for hair loss. It is full of growth factors, for example, PRP has platelet-derived growth factors, vascular endothelial growth factors, mesenchymal growth factors, insulin-like growth factors and so on. So what do these growth factors do? These growth factors stimulate the stem cells i.e. the hairs that are not growing well, they are undergoing thinning are stimulated and as a result the hair grows thicker. In addition, the dormant hair follicles i.e. the follicles that were present but weren't growing are also stimulated and therefore, the hair starts growing.

Many patients ask us doctor is TRP the best solution for my hair loss. I tell this to all of my patients and would love to share on this video that it is important to understand that when we are going for hair loss treatment it is like when we have the hobby of gardening so we understand that we need to water our plants, we have to monitor the sun exposure that our plants get and we put fertilizers if we are not happy with the growth. Similarly, for hair growth, PRP works as a fertilizer. So, you are putting on the extra nutrition that is needed for the growth of your hairs. But you do not neglect the garden needs water and the sun exposure that means a regular healthy diet, staying de-stressed and using topical medications available after consulting the dermatologist plays an equally important role. So yes, PRP works wonders and gives a good result but it has to be used an as adjunctive therapy and should not be considered the mainstay and dropping all other medications. So PRP can give good results but it depends on many other factors, for example, how exactly is the PRP prepared.

As we were discussing there are various steps and you know the final step is injecting the PRP into the scalp skin at the right points. So what are the various steps? Firstly, the right amount of blood withdrawn, then putting them in you know high-quality advanced kits and then with this kits putting them in the right machine, centrifuging them in the right way so as to bring back the highest concentration of platelet-rich plasma possible. So, these various steps will actually decide what would be the final concentration of the platelets that you get. The higher the concentrations, the better the results. Therefore, there are many patients who feel that they are not getting the results up to the mark although they have gotten the recommended 3-4 sessions. So, coming to the number of sessions almost everybody needs 3-4 sessions in the intensive phase and then patients ask doctor now I am done, I will not need anything for the lifetime.

So it is important to understand that male and female type of hair loss is many times an ongoing process, the way aging is an ongoing process, the way we need to maintain our teeth by brushing daily, similarly, there is some maintenance needed almost always. Although the frequency of sessions could be much less once you have gotten the intensive phase sessions i.e. you can maintain the hair loss by doing say around 2-3 sessions a year but some maintenance is needed by almost everybody. So, why PRP is the treatment lived by we dermatologist doctors and also by patients? So, there are many reasons, 1st the result is absolutely good. Secondly, it is a non-surgical treatment, so, with or without hair transplantation this non-surgical treatment can help you bring back the lost hairs and would increase the density, would decrease the fall will increase the thickness of hair.

Also, this is cost-effective but as a dermatologist I would recommend all the listeners to always get a detailed plan from your dermatologist. Discuss that what would be the plan of action for years to come because many a time getting done 3-4 PRPs the patients feel that now I am done, I am free, I can just stop all medications, I can stop all treatments which is many a time not the case and they feel unsatisfied. So, having a detailed discussion with your doctor, understanding how this disease progresses and how we can you know reach the maximum result and can sustain and maintain that result would give you, you know more satisfaction and you would have realistic expectations and would enjoy the betterment that you get. Thank you so much for patient listening.

Thanks!

Hi,

I am Dr. Swati Agarwal. This is a public awareness video on laser hair reduction. Many patients will come and ask us doctor, is it a permanent removal of my hair. So we tell them removal is a misnomer. This is permanent laser hair reduction. So what do you mean by that? The various parameters by which the patients are coming for laser hair reduction are thick hair, dark hair, hard hair or too much density of hair at a particular area. So with laser hair reduction, these parameters would start getting better that is thick hair will turn into thin hair, hard hair will turn into soft hair and the density of hair will also decrease. This is a welcome sign because see after the parlour activities the growth phase is not delayed that is you might have to repeat the parlour activity after every month but with permanent laser hair reduction, the frequency of sessions decrease as you take multiple sessions because the growing phase of the hair is delayed.

This is also the answer to the question the patients ask, why multiple sessions? Because hairs are in 3 phases in everybody's skin that is allogen phase, catogen phase and telogen phase. Allogen phase is the growth phase of the hair. In any laser targets only on the growth phase of the hair and that is why we need multiple sessions to get the best outcome. Now, patients also ask us, doctor, which laser should I go for. So, in previous years IPL was used which is Intense pulsed light and not a laser machine. It is not recommended as the results are not up to the mark. Then, coming to laser there are different types of lasers used. The most commonly used is a Diode laser but the best is to use triple wavelength laser because this kind of laser works on all types of hair that are thick hair and thin hair. So the thick terminal hair after few sessions changes to the thin venous hair or also called as the baby hair. So, one particular wavelength working best on thick hair might not work that good when the hair becomes thin. Similarly, in case if you are taking full body laser hair reduction and some particular area has fine growth but for both laser hair reduction, then that particular wavelength will not work up to the mark for those fine hair.

So the triple wavelength gives the advantage of working on all types of hair whether they are thick in the beginning and fine at the end of the reverse that is fine in the beginning and we want even finer growth. Another advantage of using the triple wavelength platform of laser hair reduction is that it can work on various hair types that are whether the patient is tanned or whether the darker shade or if they are too fair and want laser hair reduction. Also, it works on various body parts as I was telling you because the growth, the density, the darkness, the thickness of hair on various body parts is not the same in the same individual as well. Therefore, if you are planning of hair removal do talk to a dermatologist about laser hair reduction, discuss the various machines, the various body parts that you want to be done, get yourself examined then get it done always under the supervision of your dermatologist.

Thanks!