About Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP)

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Platelet-rich plasma is made from your own blood. A small sample is drawn and processed to concentrate the platelets, which carry growth factors involved in tissue repair, and that concentrate is then applied or injected into the area being treated. Because it comes from you, nothing foreign is introduced.

There is a blood draw, which is the part most people are asking about, and then either injection or application depending on the plan. Bruising and swelling in the days afterwards are common with injection. The appointment takes longer than most because of the processing time, so it is worth allowing for that when you book.

PRP is normally planned as a series rather than a single treatment, and changes build over weeks to months rather than appearing immediately, because you are relying on your body’s own repair processes. A plan that promises a fast visible change from a single session is not describing how this works.

Mixed, and it depends which use you are asking about. We offer platelet-rich plasma for skin quality and for hair. Of the two, hair has the larger published evidence base behind it, with more controlled trials, though they are mostly small and follow people for a short time. For skin quality the literature is thinner and the outcomes measured are more subjective. Across both, preparation methods vary enough between clinics that studies are not always comparing the same thing, which is a real limitation rather than a technicality. You will be told which of those situations applies to what you are asking about, and what it means for what you can reasonably expect.

It is your own platelet-rich plasma prepared as a gel rather than as a liquid, using the Cellenis NaturaGel system. Liquid PRP is used for skin quality, scarring and hair, where the growth factors are doing the work. The gel form does that too, but it also sits in the tissue and provides volume and support, acting as a scaffold while your body’s own repair processes work in the area. So it is closer in purpose to a filler, while being made entirely from you.

Not on demand, but it does not stay there either. Because NaturaGel is made from your own blood rather than from hyaluronic acid, your body resorbs it over time the way it would anything else it made, so nothing is permanent and nothing needs removing. What it does mean is that hyaluronic acid and NaturaGel behave differently if something needs adjusting: hyaluronic acid can be dissolved with hyaluronidase at an appointment, whereas NaturaGel resolves on its own timeline rather than on request. That difference is worth understanding before treatment rather than after, and it is part of what we weigh together when deciding which is right for you.

It is absorbed gradually rather than being permanent, over months rather than years, so it generally does not last as long as a hyaluronic acid filler. The published evidence on longevity for autologous gels is considerably thinner than it is for hyaluronic acid, so anyone giving you a confident single figure is going beyond what the literature supports.

There is a blood draw, and then the usual injection risks: bruising and swelling in the days afterwards are common, and tenderness is normal. Because the material is your own, allergic reaction to the product itself is not a concern in the way it can be with foreign material. The appointment runs longer than most because the blood has to be drawn and processed while you wait.

Anyone whose blood work or health history makes drawing and concentrating platelets unsuitable, which is part of what the assessment establishes, and anyone who wants a result that can be reversed on demand. If reversibility matters to you, that is a hyaluronic acid conversation instead.