Dracula PRP Therapy #RosaceaReview

I’m going to start out by saying that if you’re squeamish or don’t like blood then maybe you should sit this post out! You may have heard about Dracula PRP Therapy as a similar facial was made famous by Kim Kardashian and since then has been featured in the media a lot, mostly due to its shock factor.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to review the Dracula PRP Therapy* (PRP stands for Platelet Rich Plasma, FYI) with Dr Sister who was the first person to introduce the treatment to the UK. I did a lot of reading up about Dr Sister and the treatment before my appointment as I was very nervous, but hearing that Dr Sister has conducted this facial over 700 times definitely helped to put my mind at ease, along with the fact that over 6,000 medical studies have been published proving PRP’s effectiveness. Pretty impressive!

Dracula PRP Therapy

The main reason for Dracula PRP Therapy is as an anti-ageing treatment, as it helps to boost the body’s natural healing abilities, stimulating DNA repair, healing scars (even acne and keloid scars) and making skin look and feel younger. Dr Sister was also telling me about the other wider uses within the medical profession: from treating hair loss, to sports injuries, and it has even been using on the vocal cords of an opera singer!

As the facial grew in popularity, Dr Sister began to hear reports of other issues seeing improvements. And one of these was rosacea, so naturally I was very keen to try it out. Dr Sister spoke to me at length before the treatment and admitted that they’re not really sure why this facial would have any impact on rosacea, but he thinks it may essentially be ‘rebooting’ the skin. He was really great at explaining it all and answering any questions, which made the whole procedure really stress-free. I find it all absolutely fascinating and one of the best – and most mind-blowingly clever – things is that no one could possibly react to Dracula PRP Therapy as it is just your own plasma, with no other ingredients that you could be allergic to. Science is flipping amazing!

So how does it work? You have a small vial of blood taken from your arm in exactly the same way as you would if you had a blood test. This blood is then put into a centrifuge, which separates the vial into red blood cells at the bottom and plasma at the top. And it’s the plasma that we are interested in as this is what is injected into your face.

The areas in which the plasma is injected will differ depending on why you’re having the treatment, but for my facial Dr Sister concentrated on my cheeks. The first injections were right at the bottom of my eye bags and – I can’t lie to you – they hurt. There were four on each side of my face and I winced with each one. After that, the tip of the needle was dotted over my cheeks in lines, lightly pricking the surface. This wasn’t really painful, just a bit scratchy. As this was happening, my face felt quite wet and I assumed it was the plasma leaking out of the tiny holes but as I wiped a dribble running down my neck, I saw that it was blood! Eep. I’m pretty good with blood but that was a bit strange! The rest of the plasma was poured onto a pad and then wiped over my cheeks so that it could be absorbed into my skin. The best analogy I could think of for this step is… you know when you’ve made a lemon drizzle cake and you poke holes in the top so that the lemon topping can soak right through the cake? I am the cake, and the plasma was the topping!

You can watch a video of the treatment HERE (annoyingly it’s in portrait mode so you can’t see much, but you get the gist!)

You can see how my rosacea presents itself HERE and HERE. It’s by no means severe, but it’s enough that it affects my confidence.

IMMEDIATELY AFTER TREATMENT:

And that was it – all done! I had one stubborn area on my cheek that wouldn’t stop bleeding but we just held a pad onto it while we carried on chatting and it stopped after about 10 minutes. My skin was very red afterwards, but I think that’s to be expected.

2 HOURS AFTER TREATMENT:

And by the time I got home it was looking so much better I was actually shocked. There were some small, shallow scratches where the needle was going across the skin, which you can see in the photos above. (FYI the semi circular red mark on the right of my cheek in the photo above was dried blood, not a scratch.) These didn’t particularly hurt but my skin did feel pretty raw and sensitive. I didn’t dare wash it with a flannel that night so I just used Bioderma micellar water and a La Roche Posay serum and Avene moisturiser as I know that they never aggravate my skin and always help to soothe.

1 DAY AFTER TREATMENT:

The photos above show my skin the following morning. I cannot believe how much the redness had faded! My face in general felt sore, like an ache-y feeling rather than a sharp pain. The bruise on my cheekbone was more noticeable the morning after the treatment but was easily covered with make up. The scratches weren’t as red, but were slightly noticeable in their texture once I had make up on.

6 DAYS AFTER TREATMENT:

Excuse the iPhone photos, I misplaced my camera for a few days! As you can see, not only has the redness gone after the treatment, but my rosacea redness definitely seems reduced. At first I thought my skin just looked plumper and calmer, but then I noticed that my nose looked red…and realised that it wasn’t that my nose was more red, it was that my cheeks were less red than usual making my nose look darker. There are some small circular bruises that you can see on the left hand side of the first photo and there was quite a large bruise on the right cheekbone which went a lovely yellow colour. I think if I’d known I would have stocked up on arnica so perhaps look into that if you are thinking of having the Vampire Facial.

It has now been nearly a month since the facial and the redness is still staying away so I am feeling quietly confident about this treatment. Dr Sister advised that for rosacea treatment you would probably only need 1 treatment a year (as opposed to treatment every 3-6 months if you were looking for an anti-ageing result).

So what do you think of the Dracula PRP Therapy? Too gruesome for you? Tempted to give it a go? Let me know your thoughts below, along with any questions you might have!

Lex

*This treatment was provided as a PR sample, for more information on this please see my disclaimer page.