The PRP facial: what the unfortunate nickname obscures

The "vampire facial" name has attached itself so firmly that it now obscures what is actually a conservative, well-tolerated treatment with a straightforward rationale. Nothing synthetic is introduced. The active ingredient is your own blood, separated and put back.

What happens

1. A blood draw — around the volume of a standard blood test.
2. Centrifuge — roughly ten minutes, separating the platelet-rich plasma from the rest.
3. Numbing — topical anaesthetic while the sample spins.
4. Microneedling — controlled micro-channels across the treatment area, at a depth chosen for your skin.
5. Application and injection — the platelet-rich plasma is worked into the channels and, in some areas, injected directly.

The appointment runs 90 minutes, which covers the draw, the spin, numbing time and the treatment itself.

Why platelets

Platelets are the cells that arrive first at a wound. They carry a dense payload of growth factors — signalling proteins that instruct surrounding tissue to repair. Concentrating them and delivering them into freshly created micro-channels puts a strong repair signal exactly where the skin is already primed to respond.

The microneedling is not incidental. The controlled injury is itself a collagen stimulus, and the channels are what let the platelet fraction reach useful depth. The two work together.

What it improves

• Overall texture and smoothness — the most reliable outcome.
• Fine lines, particularly around the eyes and mouth.
• Post-acne marks and shallow scarring, meaningfully across a course.
• Pore appearance.
• Dullness and general skin quality.

What it does not do: fill volume, lift, treat deep static wrinkles, or resolve deep ice-pick scarring.

The downtime, honestly

• Day 0: Distinctly red, like moderate sunburn. Warm and tight.
• Day 1: Still red, settling to pink by evening. Most people would not go to a meeting.
• Days 2–3: Pink, dry, slightly rough. Makeup is fine from day two.
• Days 4–7: Some light flaking as the surface renews.
• Week 2 onward: Skin looks better than it did.

Allow a week before anything that matters. Three sessions across six to nine weeks means planning it into a quiet period.

Cost and protocol

Three sessions, three to four weeks apart is the standard. Collagen remodelling continues for months after the last one, so the result at week twelve is better than the result at week four.

PRP or exosomes for the face?

The delivery is nearly identical — both pair with microneedling. The difference is what goes in.

• PRP uses your own platelets. No foreign material, no allergy risk, the larger evidence base, and £240 cheaper across a course. The catch is that its potency depends on your own blood on the day.
• Exosomes arrive at a standardised concentration every time, with no blood draw. Newer, with a smaller body of clinical evidence.

For a first course, PRP is the sensible default. It is well understood, it costs less, and if it works you have not needed anything newer.

Aftercare

• Nothing on the skin for the rest of the day but what your practitioner provides.
• No makeup for 24 hours — the channels are open.
• No exercise, sauna, steam or swimming for 48 hours.
• No retinoids, acids or vitamin C for five days.
• SPF 50 rigorously for two weeks. Freshly needled skin burns and pigments easily.

Who should not have it

Anyone with a platelet or clotting disorder, on anticoagulant therapy without medical clearance, with an active skin infection or inflammatory condition in the area, or who has taken oral isotretinoin in the last six months. Pregnancy is a contraindication.