Blood contains platelets, which are the cells that arrive first at an injury. They release growth factors that recruit repair cells, build new small blood vessels, and stimulate collagen. Concentrating those platelets and putting them where you want repair is the whole idea behind both PRP and PRF.
The difference is in how the blood is handled. For PRP, the tube contains an anticoagulant to stop clotting, and the sample is spun hard and fast. That produces a liquid plasma layer rich in platelets, which can be injected precisely — but once it goes in, the growth factors are released in a rapid burst over a day or so.
For PRF, the tube has no anticoagulant, and the spin is slower and shorter. Clotting starts as intended. Fibrin — the protein your body uses to build the scaffolding of a clot — forms a soft three-dimensional mesh, and the platelets get caught in it along with white blood cells and a small population of circulating stem cells. Those extra cell types are largely spun away in PRP.
That mesh is the point. Instead of a single burst, the trapped platelets release growth factors gradually as the fibrin breaks down over roughly a week. Biologically that resembles how healing actually works. It also means the material behaves differently in your hands: PRF starts as a liquid and thickens within minutes, so it has to be drawn and injected promptly, and it can be spun differently again to make a thicker gel used as a soft filler.
Left unsaid in most clinic descriptions: a better-sounding mechanism is not the same as a better result. The claim that slow release outperforms burst release in skin and hair is plausible and not well demonstrated.
Drink plenty of water the day before and the morning of. Well-hydrated veins make the blood draw easier, and a failed draw is the most common reason a session goes badly.
Eat a proper meal beforehand. People faint at the blood draw, not at the injections.
Tell the clinic every medicine and supplement. Blood thinners, aspirin, ibuprofen, fish oil and high-dose vitamin E all increase bruising, and some clinics ask you to pause the over-the-counter ones for about a week. Never stop a prescribed blood thinner on your own.
Avoid alcohol for a day or two beforehand. It thins the blood and dehydrates you, which works against both steps.
If you are being treated under the eyes, clear your calendar. Swelling there is common and can look odd for several days.
If you get cold sores and the face is being treated, ask for a preventive antiviral.
Come with clean skin, no makeup, and short sleeves or a loose top for the draw.
Keep drinking water up to the appointment.
Expect the whole visit to take about an hour, most of which is spinning and waiting.
Ask to see the tubes go into the centrifuge and come out. PRF tubes have no anticoagulant, and watching the process is reasonable.
A small amount of blood is drawn from your arm, usually a few tubes, exactly like a routine blood test.
The tubes go straight into the centrifuge. Timing matters more with PRF than PRP, because clotting is already underway. Spinning takes several minutes.
Meanwhile, numbing cream is applied to the treatment area and left to work. Under-eye treatment is sometimes done with numbing injections instead.
The tubes come out with a clear or straw-colored upper layer over red cells. The upper layer is drawn off into a syringe.
Injections start promptly. On the scalp, a grid of small injections is placed across the thinning area — this is the most uncomfortable version, and most people describe it as a series of sharp stings with pressure. Under the eyes, a small number of injections or a single cannula pass is used. On the face, a fine grid or a needling treatment with PRF spread over it.
Ice is usually applied afterwards, particularly under the eyes.
Budget about an hour total. The injections themselves are 10 to 20 minutes of it.
It varies enormously by area, and the under-eye version surprises people.
Scalp: tender and tight for a day, occasionally with mild swelling that can travel down toward the forehead overnight. Wash your hair gently after about 6 to 12 hours or as instructed. No swimming, sauna or heavy exercise for a day. Small scabs at injection points can last a few days.
Under the eyes: expect swelling. Puffiness for three to seven days is normal and sometimes longer, because PRF holds water. Bruising is common and can be dramatic. Sleep with your head raised for a few nights and use cool compresses. This is the area where people most often panic on day two and it is usually fine by week three or four.
Face: redness and small bumps that settle within a day, with bruising at some points for up to a week.
Across all areas: no makeup for 12 to 24 hours, no strenuous exercise for 24 hours, no alcohol that evening, no sauna or hot tub for two days, and sunscreen afterwards.
Skip anti-inflammatory painkillers like ibuprofen for a few days if you can, and use acetaminophen instead — the treatment depends on an inflammatory healing response, and blunting it may work against you.
PRF is one of the safer injectable treatments for one clear reason: it is your own blood with nothing added, so allergy and rejection are effectively off the table. What remains are the risks of any needle in skin.
There is none, and there cannot be. PRF requires a blood draw, a calibrated centrifuge, specific tubes with no additive, sterile handling, and injection within minutes of spinning. Every part of that belongs in a clinical setting.
Home centrifuges and PRF tubes are sold online. Drawing your own blood and injecting a preparation you spun on a kitchen counter is an efficient way to give yourself an abscess or a blood-borne infection, and the risk here is not theoretical.
Some products marketed for home use claim to contain growth factors similar to PRF. They do not deliver anything comparable, and molecules that size do not cross intact skin.
If the goal is hair, the treatments you can genuinely do at home have better evidence than PRF anyway: topical minoxidil daily, and for many people an oral medication prescribed by a doctor. If the goal is under-eye skin quality, a retinoid used carefully in that area, sleep, and sunscreen are unglamorous and they work.
There is one place a good centrifuge matters that you can control: choose a clinic that owns proper equipment and does this often. Between an experienced injector with a good protocol and a clinic that bought a kit last month, the difference is much larger than the difference between PRP and PRF.