Advice Transplant vs. PRP

[hairwarrior]

Hey all,

I have been battling hair loss, isolated to the crown, since 98-99 using everything from this extremely strong ginsing/alcohol based hair tonic from china, which I miss dearly since they stopped making it. It didn't make stuff grow back, but I swear it helped stop the falling out, plus it gave a great rush...

For the past few years I have been on the western route - heavy doses of minoxidil and Finesteride...
This seems to be effective at enlarging the follicles that are still there, and I believe this is making the crown area look better, but the density of follicles is still much less than needed to make the hair look completely full.... hence my questions:

QUESTIONS:
1) Given that I seem to have the loss in check (it has been over 10 years) is it even advisable to consider transplantation in the crown area? Note, I do have very little frontal loss right where the widows peak is.

2) I have put much money and effort into keeping the follicles I currently have, and hence I don't want to have the existing ones killed during the transplantation process.
I have been told by one surgeon that damage to the existing is inevitable during the transplantation process, and that I may essentially loose all of the existing, is this true?

3) Given that I still have a decent amount of follicles left, do you think the Plasma therapy may be a better option on the crown?

[Winston]

If having shock loss is a major concern for you, then having a hair transplant might not be for you. There is always a possibility of losing some hair after the procedure. The hair will usually grow back, but there are no guarantees. Why not try PRP first to see if it works for you? You can always revisit hair transplantation once you’ve given PRP a try.

[cstella]

question

where can you even get prp treatments? I keep reading about them, but no specific leads..... any ideas?

[KeepTheHair]

PRP has an extremely low success rate. Definitely worth doing if you have no money concerns.


As for a transplant...definitely a solid option! There are some godlike doctors out there today. But choose very carefully as only probably 1% of doctors that do this stuff are any good at it.

[Winston]

I’m not sure if PRP has and extremely low success rate like you say. There is not enough data to make a claim like that, and until there are proper clinical trials we can’t really say.

[hdude46]

yeah i agree with winston..if u are going to give out information on this forum make sure its accurate.

[thejack]

True, but based on what's been seen so far you wouldn't recommend PRP soley as an effort to combat hairloss, unless money was not an issue for a wild punt.

[cstella]

yep

what does a procedure such as PRP roughly cost? From what I'm gathering, it seems it would be around 1500/2000 for an injection session. Also, I havent found any info on if it can be used for frontal hairloss.

[level]

what does a procedure such as PRP roughly cost? From what I'm gathering, it seems it would be around 1500/2000 for an injection session. Also, I havent found any info on if it can be used for frontal hairloss.

I had PRP done with Dr. Greco. He charges $1200, but if you're from out of town, he'll discount $200 for travel expenses. From what Dr. Greco explained, PRP works best in the crown and vertex. You should probably contact him and have an online consultation. He'll answers all the questions you have.