Scalp Mesotherapy for Hair Loss in Sydney

A course of fine, shallow injections that place a small amount of treatment into the scalp, exactly where hair is thinning. It’s used for male pattern hair loss, usually as three sessions a month apart, then one every three months.

It can help, especially when thinning is caught early. The research is still early, though: mostly small studies, with different formulations and schedules, so it’s promising rather than settled. We photograph your scalp before you start and judge the result at six and twelve months, so you can see for yourself.

A prescription medicine, prescribed off-label for hair loss. Australian law doesn’t allow prescription-only medicines to be advertised to the public, so we can’t name it here. We’ll go through it with you during your consultation: what it is, why we’d use it, its risks, and whether it suits you. It can be combined with PRP from your own blood.

That a medicine is prescribed for a use other than the one it’s registered for. Off-label prescribing is legal and common in medicine, when a doctor judges it appropriate and you’ve agreed to it after hearing the benefits, the risks and the alternatives. We’ll talk it through with you at your consultation.

Usually three, a month apart, to start, then one every three months to maintain the result. Pattern hair loss doesn’t stop on its own, so treatment carries on for as long as you want to keep the benefit.

Hair grows slowly, about a centimetre a month, so change takes time. We take a first proper look at about six months, and the full picture at twelve, comparing photos taken from the same angles.

The scalp is numbed first. Most men describe quick pinpricks that are easy to manage, and the session takes about 30 minutes.

Very little. You may have small bumps, redness or tenderness for about a day, and now and then a small bruise. Most men go straight back to work. We’ll ask you to leave your hair unwashed, and skip hard exercise and swimming, for the rest of the day.

Side effects are usually mild: tenderness, redness, small bumps and the odd bruise, which settle within days. Less often there’s a headache, or an infection or reaction where the scalp was treated. Because far less reaches the rest of the body, sexual side effects are less likely than with daily tablets. Your medical history is checked first, and treatment is performed in clinic under medical supervision.

They’re less likely than with daily hair loss tablets. A small dose is placed in the scalp a few times a year, rather than taken every day, so far less reaches the rest of the body, and in studies so far sexual side effects have been rare. Rare isn’t never, so we go through it with you before you start, and you can tell us at any review.

Yes. Scalp mesotherapy and PRP are both done in clinic, a few times a year once the starting course is done. Many men choose them because they’ve had side effects from tablets, or would rather not take something every day. Whether they replace or sit alongside what you’re doing now is decided at your consultation.

They’re different. Scalp mesotherapy places a treatment chosen for you into the scalp; PRP uses concentrated platelets from your own blood. Neither is better for everyone, and many men do best with both. We’ll recommend one, the other or both, based on your assessment.

Yes. Both can be done in the same visit, with one blood draw for the PRP. It’s a common way to treat more established thinning.

Yes. Both take about half an hour, so they finish around the same time. Every drip is prescribed by a doctor after a health check. More on IV drip therapy.

It aims to hold the hair you have at the hairline and help thinning hair look thicker. It can’t regrow hair where the follicles have gone, so smooth, shiny skin at the temples usually stays that way. If that’s the concern, we’ll talk honestly about other options, including a hair transplant referral.

Not on fully bald, smooth areas. It works on follicles that are still producing hair, even fine hair. The earlier you start, the more there is to keep.

Pattern hair loss carries on, and over the following months the benefit fades. That’s true of every hair loss treatment, not just this one. Maintenance every three months is what keeps the result.

Often, yes. A transplant moves hair, but the hair around it can keep thinning, and scalp mesotherapy aims to protect it. We’ll time it with your surgeon’s advice.

Very. In an Australian study of 1,390 men aged 40 to 69, about one in three had thinning at the front only, at every age, and thinning at the crown rose from 31% of men aged 40 to 55 to 53% of men aged 65 to 69.¹

Genes and hormones. In men with the inherited tendency, follicles on the top and front of the scalp are sensitive to androgens, the male hormones. Over successive growth cycles they shrink and grow finer, shorter hairs, until some stop producing visible hair. The back and sides are usually spared.

Usually not. Sudden or heavy shedding can follow illness, stress, a crash diet, low iron or a thyroid problem, and patchy loss can be alopecia areata. They’re treated differently, so we check for them first.

Some women can, for pattern hair loss. Whether it suits you depends on your hair loss, your health and your plans for pregnancy, which we go through first. Women book through The Clinic: see Hair at The Clinic.

No. You can book directly, or start with a free video call.

Ask us. We’ll go through the cost at your consultation, or get in touch on 0438 163 638 or at hello@cleonclinic.com and we’ll tell you before you book. A Male by Cleon consultation is $100, which comes off your treatment if it’s done on the day, and a video call is free. Hair loss treatment isn’t covered by Medicare or private health insurance.

Male by Cleon is at Ground 02, 46a Macleay Street, Potts Point, a short walk from Kings Cross station and close to Elizabeth Bay, Darlinghurst, Rushcutters Bay, Woolloomooloo and the CBD. If you’re further away, start with a free video call.