So, you want to stay young looking forever? Want to regrow hair on your balding head? Got joint pain? I went looking for the fountain of youth and found a painful facial instead. Just kidding ... kinda . Topic for today Platelet-rich plasma. Is it really going to help you stay young longer?
While I’m not sure how I learned of PRP treatments. I remember thinking it was going to help with my shoulder injury. I first heard of PRP from the Joe Rogan podcast. I think he had a guess on about stem cells. They brought up Platelet-rich plasma, or PRP and how it is thought to promote healing when injected into the damaged area. PRP is made from you, your blood, because your blood contains special proteins, and it’s that protein that support cell growth. In theory anyways...but its this cell growth that I was interested in, not a facial.
The idea is that injecting PRP into damaged tissues will stimulate your body to grow new, healthy cells and promote healing. At the time my right should had been killing me for months. It wasn’t something that I felt needed surgery but it was enough to cause discomfort. PRP sounded too good to be true, but As I age, I’m always looking for ways to maintain my active lifestyle. In short, how I got a facial instead of the shoulder injection, is because the doctor could only preform PRP as a skin rejuvenation treatment, and thinking back on it I’m glad she didn’t just stick me in the shoulder because I had asked her. I could have done some serious damage to myself.
IS PRP Safe? Because it is your own blood PRP treatment is considered especially safe. However, you’re injecting yourself with a needle and some some degree of risk for infections, nerve damage, etc. These PRP procedures happen often and the likelihood of these risks are very rare.
I go through the procedure and below are my results.
BEFORE
These are pictures of I took of my face before I did the facial. Sorry for the poor lighting, but it was with my phone camera. You can clearly see some sun damage from my many many miles running outside without sunscreen. There is also a large smile line on the left side of my cheek.
AGE: 35
HEALING
The Healing process takes a 7-15 days depending on the person. I heal quickly but as you can see, my face looks pretty bad.
The doctor injected my face pretty much everywhere. It didn't really hurt because she numbs your face with some creme, but if you hate needles, you're in for an adventure.
It cost about $150, and the it was over pretty fast.
I recommend if you were to get this procedure, do it on a Friday. Give your face some time to heal before coming back to work looking like you got fucked up in a bar fight.
AFTER
This is about 7 days after. Its hard to tell but the smile line is a little less. It will continue to be present, because I smile like an idiot all the time, but just a little less.
If I were to wear makeup it would look like night and day, but I don't wear makeup, and generally look beatup all the time.
Summary
Would I do this again? Yeah, maybe. Did my skin look better. I think so. The price was right for me to give it a shot, but in the States, this procedure could get expensive. Insurance will not cover it, so its going to be out of pocket.
Anyways. What do you think? Wanna give it a try?