Hair LossWhat it is, and what we can do about it.

Hair loss is not one condition

This is the single most useful thing to understand before you spend money on it. “Hair loss” describes a symptom, not a diagnosis, and the underlying processes are genuinely different from one another.

Androgenetic alopecia, or pattern hair loss, is the most common. It is hereditary and hormonally mediated: susceptible follicles progressively miniaturise, producing finer, shorter, less pigmented hairs each cycle until they stop producing visible hair altogether. In men it typically shows as hairline recession and crown thinning. In women it more often shows as diffuse thinning across the top of the scalp with a widening part and a preserved frontal hairline.

Telogen effluvium is a shedding response. A systemic event such as illness, surgery, childbirth, rapid weight loss or major stress pushes an unusually large number of follicles into the resting phase simultaneously, and they shed together some weeks later. It is usually temporary and usually recovers once the trigger has resolved.

Nutritional and endocrine causes are common and frequently missed. Low iron and ferritin, thyroid dysfunction, vitamin D deficiency and vitamin B12 deficiency can all present as diffuse thinning, and all of them are addressable once identified.

Alopecia areata is autoimmune and produces sudden, well-defined round patches of loss. It behaves differently from everything above, and we cover it on its own page.

Traction alopecia results from years of sustained pulling from tight hairstyles and extensions, and it becomes permanent if the tension continues long enough.

Why the growth cycle explains what you are seeing

Each follicle runs independently through three phases: a long growth phase, a short transitional phase, and a resting phase after which the hair is shed and replaced. Because follicles are not synchronised, you shed continuously and unremarkably.

Two things go wrong. Either too many follicles enter the resting phase at once, which produces the sudden dramatic shedding of telogen effluvium, or the growth phase gets progressively shorter with each cycle, which is the slow miniaturisation of pattern loss. The first is alarming and often temporary. The second is subtle and progressive, and it is the one people notice too late.

How we approach it

The assessment comes before any treatment, and it involves history as much as examination: when it started, whether it was gradual or sudden, what was happening in your life and health in the months before, your family history, your medications, and whether the pattern is diffuse or localised. That history usually narrows the field considerably.

Where bloodwork is warranted to rule in or out deficiency and thyroid causes, that can be arranged. Our Medical Director, Alex Dinovich, FNP-PHC, is a Nurse Practitioner and an authorised prescriber, which means this can be handled within a clinical framework rather than as a purely cosmetic exercise.

PRP hair restoration uses growth factors concentrated from your own blood, injected into the scalp to support follicles that are miniaturising but still viable. It is most relevant earlier in the process rather than later.

Naturopathic services with Dr. Erica Vriend, ND, can address the nutritional and systemic contributors that sit behind a good proportion of diffuse thinning.

Vitamin B12 injections have a role specifically where a deficiency has been identified, not as a general hair treatment.

If your presentation suggests something outside what we can appropriately manage, we will tell you and direct you to the right assessment rather than treating around it.