The single most common mistake before a wedding is starting too late, and the second is having something new done too close to the day. Regenerative treatments such as PRP build results over months rather than weeks, so the useful work happens between 12 months and 3 months out. After that the job is protecting what you have, not adding to it. This is the full countdown, including the cut-off dates.

PRP is not routinely funded by the NHS. For hair loss it is regarded as a cosmetic treatment and is not commissioned anywhere. For joint and tendon conditions a small number of local policies allow it in restricted circumstances, usually after other treatments have failed, and most people do not meet the criteria. Private medical insurance rarely covers it either, so PRP is almost always self-pay.

Choosing a London hair loss clinic. Questions about assessment, medical options, PRP suitability, location and written treatment costs.

There is no single best treatment, because the right one depends on how far your loss has progressed. Early recession responds well to medication and PRP, because the follicles are shrinking rather than gone. Advanced loss needs surgery, because no injection revives a closed follicle. Most men waste years by applying an early-stage treatment to a late-stage problem, or by delaying while the window closes.

PRP has 43 randomised controlled trials behind it for hair loss. Exosomes have small pilot studies, no completed high quality randomised trial, and no product licensed by the MHRA for injection in the UK. Injecting exosomes is prohibited here, so any lawful exosome treatment is a topical applied after microneedling. PRP has the evidence, exosomes are the experiment.

The hip evidence is contested and smaller than the knee. Across 5 randomised trials every one reported pain and function improvement, and leukocyte-poor single injections did best. Across 6 trials against hyaluronic acid there was no difference, and NICE advises against hyaluronic acid in the hip. PRP is a reasonable option for early to moderate hips, not a proven one.

For knee osteoarthritis, benefit usually peaks within 6 months and holds for 6 to 12 months, where most trials stop measuring. One 610-patient trial found benefit still present at 5 years after a single course. A repeat is reasonable when the first course helped and has faded, not on a calendar, and not when the first course did nothing.

Both are true. Across 26 randomised trials, PRP beat a steroid injection beyond 6 months. A 2026 meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials found PRP no better than saline at any point up to 26 weeks. Steroid makes tennis elbow worse in the long run, so PRP wins by not being steroid, and the loading programme does the rest.

Stem cell knee injections versus PRP: what MILES, NICE and the British Orthopaedic Association say, the limits of the evidence, UK regulation and knee PRP from £750.

The best trial says no. A 2025 double-blind trial of 90 patients found a single PRP injection no better than saline for thumb base arthritis at 6 months, and a 2024 meta-analysis of 10 studies found no difference between steroid and alternatives including PRP. The treatments that help are a splint, hand therapy and, when needed, surgery.