PRP for hair loss
What is prp for hair loss?
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for hair loss means drawing a person's blood, spinning it to concentrate the platelets and injecting that plasma into the scalp, usually monthly at first. The idea is that platelet growth factors wake up thinning follicles. Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) is a similar preparation. It is not an approved drug treatment.
Listed here because well-known people have tried it on themselves. Trying something is not recommending it; each entry says whether the person tells others to do it.
Who has tried it
Tried by 1 person we can source: 1 stopped.
Stopped
Bryan JohnsonEntrepreneur, founder of BlueprintBlueprint (Bryan Johnson)
Dates not stated · Does not recommend it to others
Had plasma injections into his scalp for 12 months and saw nearly no benefit, calling the treatment painful, expensive and time-consuming; it is absent from his 2026 routine.
“After diligently doing it for 12 months, we saw nearly no benefit.”
Bryan Johnson, How I Reversed My Hair Loss (October 2024) · Status checked October 18, 2024 · Suggest a correction
What the evidence shows
Small trials disagree. A half-head trial in 23 men found more hair on the treated side [1], and a trial in 30 women found better density and photos than saline [2]. A double-blind pilot trial in women found no significant difference in hair count or mass compared with saline [3].
Pooling nine randomized trials with 238 patients, PRP raised hair density at 3 and 6 months, but hair count and thickness did not differ from placebo [4]. Methods for preparing and injecting PRP vary widely, which makes results hard to compare.
PRP is a procedure using the person's own blood, not an approved drug for hair loss, and long-term benefit is unknown.
Safety
- PRP is made from the person's own blood with devices cleared for preparing blood products; no form is approved specifically to treat hair loss.
- Injections are painful and can cause scalp tenderness, swelling, headache and, rarely, infection.
- It is not for people with blood clotting or platelet disorders, active scalp infection or some cancers, and blood thinners raise bruising.
- Sessions are costly and repeated, and protocols vary between clinics.
Common questions
Did Bryan Johnson try PRP for hair loss?
Yes. He wrote in October 2024 that he had PRP or PRF scalp injections for 12 months and saw nearly no benefit. He described them as painful, expensive and time-consuming, and they are not part of his 2026 hair routine.
Does PRP work for hair loss?
How does PRP compare with minoxidil or finasteride?
Minoxidil and 5-alpha reductase inhibitors have larger and more consistent trials. PRP is usually offered as an add-on, and its trials are small and use varied methods [4].
Sources
- 1.Gentile P, Garcovich S, Bielli A, et al. The Effect of Platelet-Rich Plasma in Hair Regrowth: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial. Stem Cells Transl Med, 2015. doi:10.5966/sctm.2015-0107
- 2.Dubin DP, Lin MJ, Leight HM, et al. The effect of platelet-rich plasma on female androgenetic alopecia: A randomized controlled trial. J Am Acad Dermatol, 2020. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2020.06.1021
- 3.Puig CJ, Reese R, Peters M. Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study on the Use of Platelet-Rich Plasma in Women With Female Androgenetic Alopecia. Dermatol Surg, 2016. doi:10.1097/DSS.0000000000000883
- 4.Zhang X, Ji Y, Zhou M, et al. Platelet-Rich Plasma for Androgenetic Alopecia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. J Cutan Med Surg, 2023. doi:10.1177/12034754231191461