Hair & Scalp

Hair is slow. Whatever you start today shows up on your head in about 4 months, because that is how long a follicle takes to cycle. Anyone promising faster is selling something.

Before any supplement, I want ferritin. Not serum iron, ferritin. Rushton's review in Clinical and Experimental Dermatology found women with chronic shedding were far more likely to sit under 40 ng/mL, which most labs still print as normal (Rushton DH, Clin Exp Dermatol 2002;27(5):396-404). I also want TSH with free T4. And I ask what happened 4 months ago. Illness, a birth, a crash diet, a new medication.

Then the scalp itself. Flaking, itching and scaling are skin problems that happen to be on your head, and treating them as hair problems is why people spend years on the wrong shelf.

What is here sorts into internal formulas on one side and topical scalp treatments on the other. Get the labs first, then pick.

If you want help reading your numbers, book with me at doctorstacee.com.