As always, it’s so nice to arrive at Hayes Valley Med in Marin. The parking is easy, the facilities beautiful, and the team is so kind and welcoming. And I always look forward to an appointment with Linda Behla, their founder and master injector.
The reason for my visit and some info on the hair regrowth treatment are covered in this post.
I thought that, like I was myself pre-treatment, you’d be interested in how it felt to receive the blood draw, microneedling, and about twenty injections into the scalp.
I imagine you’d be surprised to hear that this was not painful – thanks to Hayes Valley Med’s ProNox nitrous oxide system.
The process began with Linda examining my scalp and I was pleased to learn that I have no noticeable hair thinning on the back of my head – the loss is all coming from the front. That was nice news!
There was no discomfort from the blood draw. Three vials were drawn and whisked off to be spun into protein-rich fibrin in their centrifuge. (Photo at the top shows the syringes full of my own plasma, separated out from other components in my blood, and in the form of protein-rich fibrin.)
I was then introduced to the ProNox device, which is a self-administered blend of half oxygen and half laughing gas. I breathed it in and was completely relaxed and felt pleasantly light-headed.
These comfort devices must have had a strong effect on me as the microneedling felt only like deep scratching. Not at all painful. It only took Linda a few minutes with Scarlet to create the micropunctures over the treatment area.
I felt just an occasional pinch during the injection of the blood growth factors and the exosome serum. At any time I began to feel discomfort, I used ProNox and immediately sensations were minimized.
It seemed the injections took about ten minutes. And after a quick cleaning we were done.
For a few hours after, my scalp felt as if it was sunburned. It did hurt when I lifted my eyebrows, so I stayed pretty expressionless for a while. I hid under a hat for my journey home and enjoyed a gentle walk on the beach that evening, and went out to dinner. Any redness was hidden in my hair line.
It’s now 48 hours after my treatment and I’m looking forward to washing my scalp and hair. I’ve had a feeling like the area is bruised, but I’ve not had any pain that I’ve felt needed treating with ice or meds. Right now, I’ve no pain at all.
The next step…patience for a few months!
UPDATED: It’s now eleven weeks after my treatment and I am thrilled to have new hair growth in the treated areas.
NOTE FROM HVME: Our patient, Rachel, is receiving this treatment at a discount in exchange for creating text, photographic, and video content around her experience with our hair regrowth procedure.
More information on:
• Scarlet RF Microneedling
• InfiniViveMD Exosome Serum
• PRO-NOX™ Nitrous Oxide System
