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Hair loss is easiest to treat early and hardest to notice early. Those two facts work against each
other.
That is why most people arrive having watched it happen for a couple of years.
You do not lose hair suddenly. You lose the ability to notice it, because you see your own head every
day and change that slow is invisible up close.
Here is what to look at.
Part your hair where you always part it, in good light. Look at how wide the line of scalp is.
A parting that has widened over time is one of the earliest visible signs. It is measurable in a way
that “my hair feels thinner” is not.
If you have photos from a few years ago with the same parting, compare them. This works better than
counting hairs in the shower, which tells you little.
If your hair is long enough to tie back, you already know roughly how thick the ponytail feels in
your hand.
A ponytail that has thinned, or that now needs an extra wrap of the elastic, is a signal worth
noting. It is not precise.
It is one of the few measurements people take without flattering themselves, because they do it every
day without thinking about it.
This is the technical one, and the most useful.
Follicles under pressure do not switch off at once. They shrink, and each cycle produces a hair a bit
finer, shorter and lighter than the last. Eventually the hair is so fine it does not count as
coverage.
Look at the shorter hairs around your hairline and parting. If many of them are wispy and pale
compared with the rest of your hair, that is the process in progress.
This is the stage where non-surgical treatment has the most to work with. The follicles are alive
and they are trying.
People mix these two up constantly.
Shedding is more hair coming out than usual: in the shower, on the pillow, in the brush. It is
often temporary. Something identifiable a few months earlier usually triggers it, such as an illness,
a big stress, a pregnancy or a change in medication.
Thinning is the hair coming back finer than it left. This is the one that accumulates.
You can have one without the other. Heavy shedding with no thinning often settles on its own.
Gradual thinning with no obvious shedding is the one that sneaks up on people.
Several common causes of hair loss have nothing to do with your scalp. Some of them reverse when the
cause is treated.
Thyroid function and iron levels are the first two to check. A recent illness, surgery or high fever
can do it, and so can a new medication.
Heavy weight loss, a restrictive diet, and a period of unusual stress two to four months before the
shedding all belong on the list.
If nobody has looked at these, start there, not with a treatment plan. Spending money on the
scalp while an untreated cause works against you is the most common way people waste a year.
We would sooner tell you that at an assessment than take a booking.
There is no single line. Treatment works on follicles that are alive.
If hair grows in an area, even badly, there is something to support. Once an area has been completely
smooth for years, non-surgical treatment will not bring it back.
At that point the conversation becomes about surgery instead. That is why early counts, because the
window is defined by biology and it does close.
Looking at the scalp properly, in good light, including the parts you cannot see.
We look at the pattern, because where the thinning appears says a lot about what drives it. We look
at the quality of the hair coming through. We ask what has changed in the last year, and the answer
is often the whole explanation.
Then you get told what stage you are at and what the options are. Doing nothing yet and checking
again later is one of them, and it happens.
If you have watched your parting for a while, have someone look at it properly. A short appointment
beats another year of wondering.
Here is what is involved in a hair loss assessment in London, Ontario.
Stay informed with expert insights, treatment guides, and the latest developments in medical aesthetics from Nurse Practitioner Belita Savage.
