Hair & Scalp Restoration

What is assessed first

The purpose is to decide whether follicles are present and viable before investing in a stimulation procedure.

How Dr. Nivine chooses between options

PRP uses the patient’s own platelet-rich plasma as a regenerative scalp treatment. FoLix and Fotona HairRestart are device-based approaches with different energy systems. Hair mesotherapy uses superficial micro-injection protocols. sit within a newer regenerative category where product quality, regulatory status and evidence need particular scrutiny.

The selection depends on diagnosis, stage of loss, scalp condition, tolerance for injections or devices and whether a medical treatment plan is also needed.

Who may be suitable

Regenerative and device-based treatments are most useful when follicles remain viable and the patient has a condition that can reasonably respond to stimulation or supportive treatment. Early pattern thinning can be a better opportunity than advanced loss because there is more existing hair to preserve.

Patients should be prepared for months rather than days of observation. Hair cycles are slow, and meaningful review needs consistent photography and enough time for new growth to emerge.

What these treatments cannot do

A procedure cannot reliably restore follicles that have been permanently destroyed, and it cannot compensate for untreated iron deficiency, thyroid disease, inflammatory scalp disease or another continuing medical driver. Advanced pattern loss may need a hair-transplant opinion if the goal is coverage that non-surgical treatment cannot produce.

Sequencing before stimulation

Active scalp disease and significant deficiency are addressed first. If medical therapy is indicated, the regenerative treatment is planned around it rather than used instead of it. Baseline photographs and, when available, trichoscopic assessment help document the pattern so that progression can be distinguished from temporary shedding.

When multiple treatments are combined, they need a reason. More interventions do not necessarily create more follicle response.

Women and men are assessed differently

Women may present with pattern thinning, telogen effluvium, postpartum shedding, menopause-related change or endocrine and nutritional factors. Men more often show a recognizable androgenetic pattern, but rate of progression, age and donor-area density change the long-term conversation. The diagnosis should therefore not be reduced to gender, but those patterns influence which questions are asked and which investigations are useful.

For both, the aim is to preserve viable follicles, improve density where possible and be clear when non-surgical treatment has reached its limit.

How progress is judged

Early reduction in shedding can precede visible density change. New growth, when it occurs, develops gradually over successive hair cycles. A treatment course should be reviewed with comparable photographs rather than from day-to-day mirror impressions.

If the hair continues to deteriorate despite appropriate treatment, the diagnosis and medical drivers should be revisited rather than simply repeating the same procedure.

When referral is the treatment

The same principle applies when a transplant is the only realistic route to the density the patient wants.