VAMPIRE FACIAL

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VAMPIRE FACIAL FAQ'S

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WHAT IS A VAMPIRE FACIAL?

A Vampire Facial is the term used by many people to describe Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) treatment, as the treatment involves having components of your own blood (your platelets) injected into your face, scalp, or areas of the body in order to treat acne, acne scarring, renew your skin, improve skin texture, brighten dark circles, and more. 

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PRP is also great for hair loss / thinning hair, and is an excellent complement to those who have had a hair transplant in aiding hair growth, and healing.

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WHAT ARE PLATELETS?

Platelets are cytoplasmic fragments of megakaryocytes. They are responsible for tissue healing (when you cut yourself shaving, and the wound heals? That's thanks to your platelets). Platelets contain more than 30 bioactive proteins, many of which play a fundamental role in homeostasis or tissue healing, due to the growth factors and healing factors that they release. Platelet's, put simply, are a skin renewal cocktail.

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WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A VAMPIRE FACIAL AND PRP?

Generally speaking, they are interchangeable terms to describe the same thing.

 

However, you may well see clinics offering 'vampire facials', whereby they simply micro needle the face, and then massage the 'blood' into the skin afterwards. This is ineffective, and is not how an effective vampire facial, aka PRP facial, should be administered.

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WHY CHOOSE PRP?

In modern society, the need for youthful, firm skin is huge and increasing day by day. Clinical signs of ageing include open pores, pigmentation, dark circles, wrinkles, increased melanin production, increased sebum production, and sagging. These are caused by changes in all layers of the skin, not just the loss of subcutaneous fat, downward trajectory of fat pads, and changes in the bony structures  (which can be addressed with dermal filler).

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There are striking similarities between the events involved in wound healing, and those that address the effects of skin aging. To put simply, ageing skin is analogous to a wound that is sufficiently extensive enough to overwhelm the skin's repair mechanisms, which become damaged by age. 

 

Just as platelets repair the skin from injury, these very same platelets can be used to restore the skin. Platelets replace and renew cells, promoting wound healing (yes, PRP is used for chronic wounds!) revascularisation (new blood pathways), promotes new production of hyaluronic acid, and tissue remodelling.

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Studies have demonstrated that platelet rich plasma contains around 578 different proteins and growth factors, such as PDGF (Platelet Derived Growth Factor), VEGF (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor), FGF-β (Fibroblast Growth Factor Beta), TGF-β (Transforming Growth Factor Beta), IGF (Insulin Growth Factor), KGF (Keratinocyte Growth Factor), EGF (Epidermal Growth Factor), and more.  PRP (Vampire Facial) repairs tissue, promotes cell growth, increases cell turnover, and induces production of type I collagen.

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PRP is safe, effective, predicable, reliable, suitable for all skin tones, and offers virtually no downtime or side effects. ​

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IS ALL PRP CREATED EQUAL? 

Absolutely not.

To put into the most simplistic terms, the effectiveness of a PRP treatment is dependent on two very important things:

1) The centrifuge

2) The clinician

 

The Centrifuge: A critical component. Blood is comprised of red cells, plasma, white blood cells, and platelets. Separating these components so that we are left with only plasma rich plasma is an absolutely essential part of the process. Cheaper, ineffective machines simply cannot separate enough - or any - platelets out from the rest of the blood. This means that although it may 'appear' that you having an effective treatment, the straw coloured liquid that you are being treated with simply won't work: there's either no platelets in there, or certainly not enough to have any clinical effect. The 'yield' is too low. The machine may also not have been able to separate out the white blood cells, which is going to leave you with inflammation (the exception to this is the territory of sports injuries, and certain other medical conditions). You MUST ensure that the centrifuge PRP system the clinic is using is powerful enough to be clinically effective.

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The Clinician: A vital component. The clinician must understand how Vampire Facial / PRP works, and use the right system, amount, micro needling device, and administration technique in order to deliver the platelets into your skin in a way that will actually give you clinical results.

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WHAT MACHINE DO YOU USE AND WHY?

We use the Cellenis PRP system (also called Eclipse PRP in the USA), is arguably the best on the market, reliably, predictably, and consistently creating a high yield of platelets in the PRP every time, with an average of 85% and a high of 92%. This is in part, due to the special coating inside the pharmaceutical grade glass tubes, but mainly due to the unique, patented and proprietary separation gel inside the tubes which uses the latest gel technology - otherwise known as the 'Buffy coat'. The Buffy coat helps to separate the platelets from the blood, assisting the centrifuge, and the buffy coat in the Cellenis system if PH neutral (PH7), which means no stinging on the injections.

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 Other systems exist, but are not as good at creating a high yield, are relatively ineffective, cause more discomfit for the patient due to the buffy coat system, and / or are contaminated by other blood products. For example:

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-  Autologous Conditioned Plasma (ACP by Arthrex) and Platelet Rich Fibrin (Choukron), cannot differentiate the Buffy coat from the rest of the system. This means that the clinicians using these systems either need to accept that the PRP created is contaminated by red blood cells and catabolic leucocytes, that can cause inflammation, or go through a further process to try to extract the PRP which results in a reduction in yield. Other systems made by such companies as Croma-Pharma, RegenLab, Emcyte, and ProGen simply cannot compete with Cellenis with regards to efficacy and yield. To put it this way, centrifuge machines can even be purchased from Alibaba and Amazon (shockingly), but simply do not work (unsurprisingly!)

 

How efficient your treatment is, and how effective the results are, entire almost completely on the type of PRP system your clinic uses to treat you. You may find cheaper PRP treatments out theres, but you are paying for what you get - and don't get. Cellenis PRP is CE Class !!b, and meets and exceeds the high level of regulatory control of medical devices. You can therefore trust Cellenis PRP to give incredible, reliable results.

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN BY YIELD?

Yiled is the amount of platelet's that the centrifuge has pulled from your blood. The higher the yield, the higher the platelet concentration  which cumulates in better results. 

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WHAT IS A CENTRIFUGE, ANYWAY?

A centrifuge is the machine that spins the blood that is drawn from your arm, effectively separating out the platelets from the other blood components. 

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SHOULD I HAVE BLOOD ON MY FACE DURING TREATMENT? WILL I LOOK LIKE THAT IMAGE OF KIM KARDASHIAN?

No, and no.

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Sadly, whoever treated KK with their 'Vampire Facial' didn't fully understand how platelet rich plasma therapy works, and / or the injection technique. We suspect this was more of a marketing ploy than any real attempt to demonstrate a PRP treatment - unfortunately, PRP done effectively and correctly would have left KK looking like she had fallen into a nettle bush, rather than a rather alluring vampire.

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Imagine it this way: A platelet looks like a cell, but it's not a call (it has no nucleus). When it is injected back into the skin, we place it very carefully in the upper layer of the epidermis. This does not cause any bleeding and instead causes raised 'blebs' (like little nettle blotches) on the surface of the skin.. The growth factors are then released and 'fall' through the layers of the skin below.

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If bleeding is visible, then the PRP has been administer too deep, and therefore cannot 'fall' through the layers.

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HOW LONG HAS PRP BEEN AROUND FOR?

PRO has been used in a medical aesthetic capacity for at least ten years. 

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WHAT CAN A VAMPIRE FACIAL BE USED FOR?

PRP treatment can be used for the following:

- Acne

- Acne Scarring

- Dark under eye circles

- Ageing skin

- Loss of collagen

- Loss of elastin

- Sun damage

- Hyperpigmentation

- Hair Loss

- Thinning hair

- Those who have recently had a hair transplant

- To boost the complexion

- To make the skin glow

- To give more moisture to the skin

- To prevent skin ageing

- To turn back the clock on your skin

- To improve skin texture

-  T

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HOW MANY SESSIONS OF PRP DO I NEED?

We advise 3 sessions initially, a month apart, for best results, with maintenance sessions once yearly.

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Frequency of treatments is relatively dependent on the level / severity of ageing. Patients over the age of 50 will need at least 3 sessions. Younger skin may require less.

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HOW SOON WILL I SEE THE RESULTS OF PRP?

For facial treatment,It is common to see improvements after the first session.

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Over the days and weeks following treatment, growth factors released by the platelets stimulate the growth of new blood vessels and more collagen growth, thickening the epidermis and providing an improvement in the skin’s texture and tone. 

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After 4-8 weeks, your skin will be dramatically improved.

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For hair loss / thinning, typically results will start to be seen at the 2 month mark, with continued improvement over the next several months.

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HOW OFTEN DO I NEED TO REPEAT THE TREATMENT?

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Whilst results are predictable, they vary and will last average for up to 12-18 months. For all PRP treatments, a repeat course of treatment is required once a year to maintain results.

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HOW LONG DOES THE TREATMENT TAKE?

We advise you to allow 60 minutes for your appointment, although this varies and may be quicker or slightly longer depending on the individual and area(s) / condition(s) being treated.

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IS THE PROCEDURE ITSELF PAINFUL?

We apply topical numbing cream beforehand to ensure your comfort.

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ARE THE RESULTS INSTANT?

Many people see improvement in the areas being treated following the first session.

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WHERE IS THE TREATMENT PERFORMED?

We provide Vampire Facial in Cardiff.

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WHAT CAN I EXPECT AFTER MY PRP TREATMENT?

PRP / Vampire facial is a very safe, extremely effective treatment with virtually no downtime in most cases. You may have visible bumps for 12 -24 hours following your treatment (this is the PRP). Your skin may be red.  As with all injectable treatments, there is a risk of redness, swelling, and bruising afterwards.

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Client's who have a poor skin base line may experience exfoliation of the top layer of the skin, this is normal and after a few days fresh, new skin will begin to take its place.  Occasionally, small bumps may develop in the find skin areas beneath the eyes. This is usally a collection of new cells called keratinocytes - whilst these are visible proof of how your body's growth factors are stimulating new skin development, they will soon disappear.

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IS THERE ANYTHING I SHOULD OR SHOULDN'T DO AFTER HAVING PRP?

Do not touch the injected areas for at least one hour following your treatment. Do not wear make-up for  six hours following treatment. 

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WHAT ABOUT ANY RISKS?

Vampire facials / PRP treatment is extremely safe. However, there are side-effects  as follows:

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- You can expect to see little raised blebs all over the area(s) treated, that resemble nettle stings. This is the PRP, and this means the product has been placed correctly. Typically, these 'bumps' disappear in 12 - 24 hours. You will also be red immediately after the treatment.

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- Rarely, swelling, bruising

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- Rarely, fainting from having your blood taken. A bruise from the venipuncture site can occur, and can last several days.

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- Extremely rare: cellulitis, which may then necessitate antibiotics or hospital treatment. This is very, very unlikely to happen.

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- Secondary skin infection. Extremely rare.

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