For as long as beauty rituals have existed, there have been secret, strange ingredients touted as the magic elixir for a youthful complexion. In ancient Rome, wealthy women bathed in donkey milk and slathered on face masks made with lanolin, the grease extracted from sheep’s wool. Geishas in eighth-century Japan used a facial made of nightingale guano to wash off makeup and soften skin—a treatment some spas still offer today.
This perpetual conveyor belt of beauty hacks has gathered pace in the digital age, thanks to the influx of social media influencers and ever-present new trends. Some of them are tame—manuka honey and turmeric—and others more lurid—salmon sperm and bee venom. One of the latest viral secrets to the fountain of youth is said to be in our very own blood—in a treatment aptly called the vampire facial. Platelet-rich plasma—or PRP—is injected under the hypothesis that the platelets—the cells associated with injury healing—in your blood can help rejuvenate your skin, smooth its texture, reduce wrinkles, and shrink pores. In other applications, PRP has been used in orthopaedics to treat muscle, tendon, and joint diseases and on the scalp to stimulate hair growth in cases of balding.
The process of PRP for anti-aging purposes requires several tablespoons of blood to be drawn from your arm before being placed in a centrifuge. The blood is spun until the platelets are separated from the red and white blood cells, concentrating them in the plasma about six to eight times greater than in regular blood. The resulting clear fluid is then injected into your face.
PRP has merits when combined with other cosmetic treatments, particularly procedures where some form of skin injury occurs, such as microneedling or laser resurfacing.
But are the beauty benefits worth this involved, somewhat extreme process? “It appears to work for some people, but it does not seem to do much for others,” says Dr. Monica Li, a dermatologist and the owner of Vancouver Skin MD clinic. Scientific studies on PRP have been similarly inconsistent, depending on what it is used for—some show anti-aging results, while others don’t lead to a positive or negative impact. But, Li suggests, that doesn’t mean it’s something to write off completely.
Growth factors in platelets are what aid the healing process after you suffer a wound. In skin care, growth factor proteins that help stimulate collagen production are an increasingly popular ingredient in anti-aging serums. But if the thought of injecting your blood back into you makes you squeamish, the treatment doesn’t need to be your first line of defence against aging or textured skin. For a lot of people, Li says, PRP is often offered as a booster with other cosmetic treatments—whether for hair or skin—but it doesn’t consistently do much on its own. But since PRP is safe with a low risk of adverse effects, those who are interested in the treatment could try it.
For Li, PRP has merits when combined with other cosmetic treatments, particularly procedures where some form of skin injury occurs, such as microneedling or laser resurfacing. “PRP is often used in conjunction with other treatments as a supplement. It may not do much, depending on the individual, if it’s just the main treatment,” she says.
Injecting your own platelets back into your body is an autologous process, meaning it’s “immunologically neutral,” Li says, and thus safer than injecting a foreign material into your body. The risks of PRP would include but are not limited to what you would be getting in a blood draw, she says. That includes feeling faint if you are dehydrated or hungry, for example, or some tenderness at the site of the injection.
Since PRP is a blood product, it’s extremely important that it’s handled in a sterile way, she adds, otherwise there is a risk of infection. Going to a licensed clinic is essential. In Canada, medical clinics are regulated and must be owned or operated by a licensed professional.
Dr. Dusan Sajic, a dermatologist and director of the Derma Skin Institute in Guelph, Ontario, says PRP has the best track record in addressing hormonal or genetic hair loss—though he’d also recommend it along with other treatments and thinks of PRP as an add-on, not a sole solution.
“PRP is not a fad for certain hair loss AGA or alopecia areata,” he notes. “It is an evidence-based adjunct therapy with a strong safety profile when performed by a qualified dermatologist under sanitary conditions. However, it also has its limitations, and I don’t recommend it for every type of hair loss, especially if stress and nutrition and other treatments are not optimized.
“Think of it as a biologic amplifier and booster: optimize nutrition, hormones, and proven pharmacologic therapies first, then add PRP for maximal benefit.”
While PRP sounds like the sort of extreme beauty ritual synonymous with our selfie-galore times, it’s been used in dermatology since 2006, Sajic says. Kim Kardashian went viral in 2013 for posing with a blood-soaked face in a clinic chair after getting the procedure. Nevertheless, Li says there needs to be more studies to standardize the procedure and to determine how many treatments and what types of centrifuge machines are optimal.
“There’s a lot of variability in the derivation and also the delivery of the treatment,” she notes. “Different people do different things to begin with, and it’s hard to compare studies when, for instance, a centrifuge is different or their treatment protocol is different.”
“Efficacy ultimately depends on technique and the protocol used,” Sajic says. “To boost efficacy, PRP is often combined with other treatments like microneedling, hyaluronic acid, or bio-stimulating peptides, growth factors, or exosomes for enhanced results. It’s also great at reducing wound healing time by a few days after ablative lasers.”
Out of the current slate of viral skin-care trends, PRP is relatively less harmful, despite the simultaneous dystopian and witchy connotations of blood as the secret to youth. When it comes to social media beauty trends in general, though, Li cautions us to be careful. “There can be a lot of misinformation on social media, so I think that what is seen or read online must be considered with a grain of salt,” she says.
“There may be conflicts of interest in what is posted online,” she continues. “They might be paid sponsorships. There may be other partnerships between the individual posting and whatever they’re promoting.”
For the most part, she recommends going with tried-and-true beauty treatments, depending on your concerns. Frown lines? Try a neuromodulator such as Botox. Brown spots from the sun? Consider lasers. Deeper folds in the skin? Then a dermal filler treatment might be right. Acne scarring? Then microneedling or lasers may be the solution. “The underlying principles of these beauty treatments is to help stimulate collagen, to help remove pigment, or to help tighten tissue,” Li says. PRP could be added to most of these, as an extra boost, if and when appropriate.
At the end of the day, she says, “It’s probably safer not to hop on trends, because trends are not one-size-fits-all.”
Our fascination with beauty hacks is timeless, though, so don’t be surprised when the next uncovered secret is yet another strange, perhaps even unpleasant one. Yesterday, it was bird poop. Today, it’s blood. Tomorrow—who knows?
Read more from our Winter 2025 issue.
