What a scalp analysis actually tells us

Most people arrive at a consultation with one question: is my hair falling out? The honest answer is that everyone sheds — the useful question is whether the hair growing back is as strong as the hair that left, and where that balance is shifting.

Under magnification we can see the width of individual strands within a follicular unit. When thicker terminal hairs are being replaced by finer, shorter ones, that's miniaturisation, and it tends to follow a pattern. Mapping it across defined zones of the scalp gives us a baseline we can measure against three and six months later.

We also look at the skin itself — redness, flaking, build-up around the follicle — because a scalp under stress rarely grows its best hair. Often the first phase of a plan is simply calming that environment.

None of this is a diagnosis; where something looks medical, we refer. But it's enough to build a staged, realistic plan and to know quickly whether it's working.