What it is
PRP uses the patient's own blood, drawn and spun on the day so that the platelet-rich portion can be injected back into the thinning area; mesotherapy cocktails and polynucleotides are given by the same route. They are adjuncts — started after the cause of the shedding has been established and alongside the medical treatment for it, not instead of it.
What this page covers
- Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) scalp injection for androgenetic and other non-scarring hair loss
- Scalp mesotherapy cocktails as an adjunct
- Polynucleotide scalp injection
- Intralesional corticosteroid to the scalp for alopecia areata patches
- Fractional laser–assisted delivery of a topical hair treatment
- Low-level laser therapy caps, helmets and combs
- Blood-borne virus status and single-patient handling before any autologous preparation
Who it suits
- Someone who has the diagnosis first. The examination has been done, the blood work has come back, and treatment for the cause has started — this is added to that, at a point where its effect can be judged against something already in place.
- Someone whose scalp is calm on the day: no infection, no pustules or crusts, no sore or spongy areas, no inflammation for a needle to be pushed through.
- Someone who tells us everything they take, and who understands that the medicine list is part of the examination rather than a routine question — blood thinners and aspirin above all, and with them anti-inflammatory painkillers, herbal preparations and supplements bought without a prescription. Those last three are the ones people most often do not count as medicine, so they go unmentioned.
- Someone who accepts a series of appointments with review and with photographs of the same parting under the same light, and who accepts they may be among those in whom nothing much changes. Response differs between individuals, and that is the part the examination cannot predict for you.
- Not you if you gave birth a few months ago and your hair is coming out in handfuls. That is usually the expected shedding after delivery, it usually settles, and what it usually needs is iron, thyroid and vitamin D looked at — not a course of injections into the scalp. We would rather say so at the first visit than sell you sessions over it.
When we advise delaying or not treating
- Pregnancy and breastfeeding. We postpone. These are elective injections, nothing here needs doing now, and postponing them costs you nothing. Say so when you book rather than on the day, so the visit can be used for the examination instead of being canceled. And while you are breastfeeding, the safety of every medicine and supplement is reviewed before it is prescribed, not after.
- A fish or seafood allergy. Polynucleotides are fragments of purified DNA taken from salmon or trout — a marine-derived product. They are not given to you; something else is chosen, or nothing is. You are entitled to ask what any product is made from before you consent to it, and we say this whether or not you ask.
- Mesotherapy cocktails carry several ingredients in one syringe, which is why an allergy history is taken before every session and not only the first. That includes any past reaction to hair dye or black henna, and to gel or acrylic nails — the two most often left unmentioned.
- A bleeding or platelet disorder, a low platelet count, or a blood-thinning medicine — anticoagulant or antiplatelet, aspirin among them. The scalp has a rich blood supply and bleeds readily, and these injections go into many points in a single session, so tell us before the appointment is made. Do not stop any of them for this: a prescribed blood thinner is stopped only with the agreement of the doctor who prescribed it, not on our say-so and not on yours.
- Anti-inflammatory painkillers taken recently blunt how platelets work, and the platelets are precisely the part of the blood that PRP rests on. Tell us what you took and when; whether the session goes ahead that day is decided at the visit.
- Relevant blood disease, or a cancer under active treatment. PRP is not what gets added then, and that decision belongs with the team treating you rather than with an aesthetic clinic.
- A scalp that is inflamed, infected, crusted or sore, or one with lumps joined under the skin that discharge. It is treated first and not injected through. One question is asked here: is there inflammation of the sweat glands in the armpit or the groin? The two conditions sometimes travel together.
- Diabetes that is not well controlled. It changes what can safely break the skin, through infection risk and slower healing. Control is asked about and, where it is unknown, checked before booking rather than after.
- Shedding after weight-loss surgery or weight-loss injections, before protein, iron and ferritin, B12, zinc and vitamin D have been looked at. Poor absorption is the real driver in many of these cases, and it also slows healing, which changes the decision on any procedure that breaks the skin. No injection compensates for a deficiency nobody has measured.
- A hairline retreating in a band with the eyebrows thinning alongside it, or a crown widening outward in coarse, tightly curled hair. A scarring alopecia is excluded before any needle enters that area — starting with the examination and trichoscopy, and sometimes needing a biopsy. And no hairline laser or hairline shaping is booked until it has been excluded.
- Hair kept under constant pull — heavy extensions, tight braids, or a head covering fastened tightly with its pins in the same place — where the loss sits at the pull points. Removing the pull is the treatment here, along with changing how the hair is secured and where the pins sit. Injecting around a pull that continues spends time and money in the wrong place. We know this touches a daily habit, so it is said gently and said in full.
- A request to start a course today because a video or a relative's experience made the case for it, with no examination and no blood work. We decline that, and would rather explain why than open a file and begin.
Possible effects
Set out in full, because a decision to have a needle put into the scalp — many times over in one sitting — is not a sound one without them. Most of what follows is short-lived. It should still reach you before the appointment rather than during it:
- Pinpoint bleeding at the injection points. The scalp has a rich blood supply and bleeds more readily than most areas, so spots of blood on the skin and in the hair during the session and just after it are expected. Steady pressure settles them.
- Soreness, and a heavy, tight feeling in the scalp, with a headache alongside it, for hours and sometimes for a day or two. It is more noticeable along the parting and where the injection points sat close together. Ask us what to take for it rather than reaching for an anti-inflammatory painkiller, for the reason given in the section above.
- Bruising and swelling, and in some people the swelling travels downward with gravity overnight and shows on the forehead and around the eyes before it goes. It looks more alarming than it is, and it settles on its own.
- Tender small bumps at the injection points for a day or two — expected with polynucleotides in particular. Anything still there after that, or appearing later, is not one of those and is examined.
- Darkening at the entry points in deeper skin tones, which fades slowly. It is reduced by keeping the number of entry points down and by not injecting skin that is already inflamed.
- Infection at the injection sites. Uncommon, and not waited out: growing pain, spreading redness, local warmth, any discharge, or a fever is examined. One form of it deserves particular attention — a nodule appearing over weeks after injections of a mixture prepared without strict sterility can be an unusual bacterial infection, which needs a sample taken and cultured and its own prolonged specific treatment rather than a routine course of antibiotics. Tell any doctor who examines it that you had injections, and when.
- An allergic reaction. Polynucleotides are marine-derived and mesotherapy cocktails carry several ingredients together, so a reaction is possible even after an earlier session that passed uneventfully. The immediate, severe form is rare; it is the reason the allergy question is asked again every time, and the reason a room that injects these keeps what is needed to treat it.
- Feeling close to fainting during the injections. Common enough not to be alarming, and the right thing is to say it as it happens rather than afterward; you are laid flat and it passes.
- Where a corticosteroid is injected into a patch — a dip in the skin at the injected point, a pale mark, and fine thread veins. On deeper skin the pale mark is both more visible and slower to fade, and some of it can stay. That is why the steroid is diluted, why sessions are spaced, and why a point that has shown any of these is not injected again. The alopecia areata page sets this out in full.
What is not on this list is a result. The effects above are the predictable part of this exchange; the benefit is the part that differs between individuals. The other cost is time: months of sessions on a scalp whose diagnosis was never settled is a more frequent harm here than any complication in the list.
A note on darker skin
Nothing in these injections depends on the color of your skin, and the needle behaves the same way in every type. Three things do change with it. The first is what the entry points leave behind: in Fitzpatrick types III to VI, and in IV to VI in particular, the small marks the needle leaves darken more readily and take longer to fade, which is why the number of entry points is kept down and why an inflamed scalp is settled before it is injected. The second is what a corticosteroid leaves if one is used in a patch — the dip in the skin, the pale mark and the fine thread veins are all more visible on deeper skin, and the pale mark is slower to fade and some of it can stay. The third is the diagnosis that has to be excluded first, and it is the one that matters most here: redness around the follicle is far harder to see in deeper skin, so the scalp is read under magnification rather than by eye. Central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia — a scarring loss that begins at the crown and widens outward — is common in coarse, tightly curled hair and is repeatedly managed for years as ordinary thinning; hair lost from an area that has scarred does not come back, which is why chemical relaxing, heat and tight braiding are asked about directly, and why injecting a scalp in which this has gone unrecognized buys months at the price of the one thing that could still have been protected. Traction belongs in the same paragraph: a tightly fastened head covering and its pins, heavy extensions, a tight ponytail — where the pull is the cause, removing it is the treatment, and no injection stands in for that.
Afterwards
- Press gently on any point still bleeding as you leave, until it stops. The scalp bleeds readily and this is ordinary.
- Leave the scalp alone for the rest of the day: no scratching, no rubbing, no picking at the small crusts.
- Loosen whatever you wear on your head that day, and move the pins away from the injected areas. A covering fastened tightly over freshly injected skin rubs against it and traps heat on it.
- Ask us what to take for the soreness rather than reaching for an anti-inflammatory painkiller on your own.
- Keep taking the treatment for the cause. These injections stand beside it and do not make up for a single day of it.
- Come to the review, and let us photograph the same parting under the same light each time. Hair changes too slowly to be judged from memory.
- Report, without waiting for the next appointment: bleeding that does not stop with steady pressure, pain that grows instead of easing, spreading redness or local warmth, any discharge, a fever, or a lump at an injection point that has stayed or appeared weeks later.
- Tell us if you become pregnant or start breastfeeding, and about any new medicine — a blood thinner before anything else — before the next session rather than on the day of it.
Honestly
The evidence behind these is weaker than the evidence behind the medical treatment they sit beside, preparation systems and platelet concentrations differ widely between clinics, and response differs between individuals — so no particular outcome is offered. They are not used in a scarring alopecia, on an inflamed or infected scalp, or before a deficiency or thyroid problem has been corrected; any unregistered or unlabeled injectable mixture is declined whatever it is marketed as, and every autologous preparation is handled for one patient only with blood-borne virus status recorded beforehand.
Common questions
Is it my own blood? And does the session hurt?
Yes — blood is drawn from your arm in the same visit, spun, and the platelet-rich portion injected into the scalp. As for sensation, we will say it plainly: the injections sting, the scalp stays sore for hours afterward and sometimes for a day or two, and a headache often comes with it. It differs between people, but we tell nobody this is a comfortable session.
Why do you ask about hepatitis before you take my blood?
Because the answer changes how the blood is handled: sharps, the centrifuge, what is done about any spill, and how waste is disposed of. It does not change whether you can be treated. And a preparation made from your blood is handled for you alone, with equipment that is not shared with anyone.
I take a blood thinner or aspirin. Should I stop it before the session?
No — and never on your own initiative. A prescribed blood thinner is stopped only with the agreement of the doctor who prescribed it, and that is not something we can ask of you. Tell us about it before the appointment is booked, and it is decided from there whether the session goes ahead, is postponed, or something else is chosen. If you have taken an anti-inflammatory painkiller in the last few days, say that too — it affects how the platelets work.
The polynucleotide injection — what is it made from? I have a seafood allergy.
From purified DNA sourced from salmon or trout. It is marine-derived, and it is not given to anyone with a fish or seafood allergy. Tell us plainly and we choose something else, or nothing. You are entitled to ask what any product is made from before agreeing to it, for whatever reason.
I am pregnant or breastfeeding. Can I have a session?
We postpone. Nothing in these injections needs doing now, and postponing them costs you no result. The visit itself is not canceled, though: we examine, we look for a treatable cause, and we request the tests that are useful. And while you are breastfeeding, the safety of every medicine or supplement is reviewed before it is prescribed to you.
I saw a clinic offering an injection that thickens hair. Is it the same thing?
It may be and it may not. What we do is check that particular product: whether it is registered with the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, whether its supply route is documented, and whether its ingredients are written down. A mixture whose ingredients nobody will write down is not injected, however it is marketed, and we decline it clearly. Then the question that comes before all of that remains: what is the diagnosis? Injections before that is answered are months passing.