Parts to this lesson:
- About this programme
- Count and measure your hair loss
- The 60s Hair Loss Count
- Summary
Count and Measure Your Hair Loss
In this guide you will learn how you can determine your hair fall rate in a standardized way; a 60 second hair loss count test.
Therefore over time the test may be used to help you monitor the effectiveness of any hair loss product/s.
Updated February 2020: We've now made this information downloadable to you from Google Sheets - it's completely free.
Click here to access, download and start recording your results.
Therefore over time the test may be used to help you monitor the effectiveness of any hair loss product/s.
Updated February 2020: We've now made this information downloadable to you from Google Sheets - it's completely free.
Click here to access, download and start recording your results.
Since you are reading this it's assumed that you’re experiencing hair thinning and/or hair loss and that you’ve been concerned enough to ‘Self-diagnose and prescribe’ a hair loss treatment product.
Before I continue allow me to digress for a moment. It should be made crystal clear that Self-diagnosis is risky. Why? Because there are many causes of hair loss and there are many different types of hair loss. Many are generic and some are indicative of serious underlying medical conditions.
Different types of hair loss require different treatments and may have very different outcomes; in other words the prognosis can vary greatly.
The only people qualified to diagnose the cause of your hair loss is a trichologist; a professional hair and scalp expert who has undergone a minimum of three years intensive medical training specifically relating to the hair and scalp.
GPs are in the main inadequately trained to correctly diagnose the different types and causes of hair loss. That said the results of the tests that GPs can arrange for you can certainly be useful to a trichologist. He/she can use your GP’s test results to help diagnose the root cause of your hair loss.
We’ll cover this in much more detail later in another lesson on identifying the root cause of your hair loss. But for now, back on track…
A qualified trichologist has the means to accurately assess the success you’re having with a particular treatment programme over a period of time.
Ongoing assessment of your own results should be an essential and vital part of your own treatment programme – especially for those who have ‘Self-diagnosed and prescribed’.
Not to do so would mean that you won’t have a clue (other than perhaps a feeling) if your treatment is working or not.
As pointed out in a previous lesson, often there may be no early signs of your treatment being a success despite the longer term results being positive.
But think about it… successful treatments always have a starting point; a day when you look and actually see a change; something different which starts to happen that begins to take you in the desired direction.
If you are losing hair too fast and your hair density is quickly diminishing, then the starting point would be the day when you lose less than you have been.
But as a ‘home user’ of a Self-prescribed product you will not know if this day is reached. There’s no way of knowing whether:
- Your product is starting to work – and therefore to continue using it, or
- Your product isn’t working; it’s time for professional diagnosis / treatment
The truth is…
You have no way of being certain how many hairs you are losing a day.
So you have no way of being certain if your hair loss product is working."
How Many Hairs Are Lost Per Day?
There is a suggestion in the media that it is normal to lose 100 hairs per day.
The 100 number has come about due to a basic mathematical derivation based on the assumption that the average scalp contains 100 000 hairs, approximately 10% are in the telogen phase = 10, 000 hairs.
Therefore 10,000 / 100 days which is the average ‘timeframe’ of the telogen phase = 100 hairs shed per day.
The 100 number is most unhelpful because it is impractical for anyone to actually count the actual number they lose – remember bed, shower, car, etc.
The 100 number has come about due to a basic mathematical derivation based on the assumption that the average scalp contains 100 000 hairs, approximately 10% are in the telogen phase = 10, 000 hairs.
Therefore 10,000 / 100 days which is the average ‘timeframe’ of the telogen phase = 100 hairs shed per day.
The 100 number is most unhelpful because it is impractical for anyone to actually count the actual number they lose – remember bed, shower, car, etc.
Next:
- About this programme
- Count and measure your hair loss
- The 60s Hair Loss Count
- Summary