Does a vampire facial (PRP) work against skin ageing?
PRP has a modest, probably real effect on skin thickness and elasticity, but does little for wrinkles or pigmentation spots. It is safe, but because of large differences in preparation you cannot know whether the treatment you receive corresponds to the study protocol that produced positive results.
Skin thickness and elasticity are the endpoints on which PRP scores most clearly: 80% and 75% of studies respectively found a positive effect on these measures. For skin texture the picture is also mostly positive, although the improvement remains modest and it is unclear how long it lasts. In most studies, physicians rated the improvement at less than half of the maximum scale.
For wrinkles and fine lines PRP is considerably less impressive. Only 40% of studies saw a clear improvement; the rest did not. On pigmentation spots and skin discolouration the results are even more mixed: only 17% of studies reported improvement, while 42% showed mixed results. On skin hydration PRP demonstrably has no effect; two thirds of studies saw no difference.
As an addition to a fractional laser treatment, PRP does appear to offer a practical benefit: recovery after such a treatment proceeds more quickly. This is one of the better-supported applications. Combining PRP with hyaluronic acid could further enhance elasticity, but that is based on a single smaller study.
A serious caveat applies to all these findings: PRP is prepared and administered differently in every clinic. Centrifugation speed, platelet concentration, method of administration -- everything varies. As a result, studies are barely comparable with one another and nobody knows which approach works best. This makes it impossible to translate positive results directly into practice.
Safety is not a major concern. Not a single study in the systematic reviews reported serious adverse effects. Because it involves your own blood, the risk of rejection reactions is low. Mild redness or swelling after the injections is what you can temporarily expect.
Based on multiple systematic reviews and a small comparative study (PMID 40167104, 31628542, 36074433, 38650371, 35870104, 40414798). The underlying studies are small, methodologically heterogeneous and often not randomised.