Trichologists Greenwich: Measure Before You Book
Most people book a hair appointment with a feeling, not a measurement. That is the wrong way round.
The short answer. Before you pay anyone, spend four weeks gathering evidence. The trichologists Greenwich residents rate will do far more with dated photographs, a shed count and a symptom diary than with a worried description. The NHS puts normal daily hair loss at 50 to 100 hairs, so the number only means something once you know your own baseline and whether it is rising, steady or falling.
Our hair growth shampoo
Grow Me® Hair Growth Shampoo, £14.95. A sulphate free daily shampoo that supports a healthy scalp environment and helps reduce breakage, so lengths hold on and look fuller.
Key takeaways
- Normal shedding is 50 to 100 hairs a day, so a single alarming brushful proves nothing on its own.
- Four weeks of dated photos in the same light beats any verbal description of what is happening.
- Hair loss, hair shedding and hair breakage have different causes and different fixes, and mixing them up wastes money.
- Trichologist is not a protected title in the UK, so check membership of the Institute of Trichologists or The Trichological Society yourself.
- Sudden patches, scalp pain, sores or scaling belong with a GP first, not with a hair consultation.
What should you measure before seeing trichologists Greenwich?
Four things carry real weight in a consultation: dated photographs of your parting and crown, a count of hairs shed on wash day, the width of your parting in millimetres, and a plain diary of what changed in your life three to four months ago. Gather those for four weeks and a half-hour appointment becomes genuinely useful. A borough over, our guide to blood tests before a Bromley trichology appointment covers the same question from the results end.
Photographs do the heavy lifting. Take them in the same bathroom, at the same time of day, with the same light and the same parting, once a week. Hair grows roughly 1 cm a month, so meaningful change is a matter of months, not days, and memory is a poor instrument over that timescale. A phone album with dates attached is a record nobody can argue with.
Shed counts matter next. Collect the hairs from the plughole, the brush and the towel on one wash day each week and count them. Washing twice a week concentrates several days of natural fall into one session, which is why wash day feels catastrophic and a weekday morning does not. Counting on the same day each week removes that distortion.
A cheap trick that works
Lay the shed hairs on a sheet of white A4 and photograph the sheet. Counting is easier on an image than over a sink, and the photograph is dated for you.
How do you tell hair loss, hair shedding and hair breakage apart?
Three different problems get called the same thing. Hair loss means follicles producing finer hair or none at all, hair shedding means whole hairs leaving the scalp on a cycle that has been disturbed, and hair breakage means the fibre snapping partway along its length while the follicle underneath is perfectly healthy. Each shows a different physical signature.
| What you are seeing | Most likely mechanism | The giveaway |
|---|---|---|
| Parting widening slowly over a year or more, hairs finer at the front or crown | Hair loss, follicular, pattern type | The shed hairs are shorter and thinner than the rest of your hair |
| A sudden surge of fall 2 to 3 months after illness, surgery, a crash diet or childbirth, all over the head | Hair shedding, a disturbed growth cycle | Shed hairs are full length with a small pale bulb at the root end |
| Length stops increasing, ends look frayed, short broken pieces stick up at the parting | Hair breakage, fibre damage | The fragments have no bulb at either end, because they snapped mid-shaft |
| A smooth round bare patch appearing over a few weeks | Patchy autoimmune loss, not a cosmetic problem | Skin in the patch is smooth and normal, with no scaling; see a GP |
Sorting this out yourself before the appointment is worth real money, because the three need opposite responses. Breakage responds to gentler handling and better conditioning. Disturbed-cycle shedding usually settles on its own once the trigger has passed, typically within about six months. Pattern hair loss is gradual, tends to run in families and is not usually something the NHS covers, because it is treated as cosmetic rather than medical.
If the picture is mostly breakage, our guide to measuring terminal hair density at home will tell you whether the density itself has actually changed, which is the question that settles it.
How many hairs a day is it normal to lose?
The NHS figure is 50 to 100 hairs a day for an adult with a normal growth cycle. Anyone with long hair sees that as a startling amount of material, which is why the number is reassuring once you have it. The figure also explains why a shed count only means something when compared against your own earlier counts.
Two caveats stop the number being misused. Wash frequency shifts where the hairs turn up rather than how many there are, so washing every four days produces a bigger wash-day pile than washing daily without anything being wrong. And a count that sits at 120 for one week tells you far less than a count that climbs from 80 to 150 to 220 over a month.
Grow Me® Hair Growth Shampoo £14.95
Sulfate-free, 250ml. Biotin, caffeine, rosemary, niacinamide and hydrolysed lupine protein (ANAGELINE®) in a shampoo built to reduce breakage so length is kept rather than snapped off. Useful while you are tracking, because it removes breakage from the picture.
What should you photograph, and how often?
Five shots, once a week, always the same: parting from directly above, crown from above and behind, hairline from the front, each temple in profile. Keep the phone at the same distance, use the same overhead light rather than a window, and do it dry and unstyled. Consistency is what makes the series readable.
Wet hair exaggerates scalp show and flattering light hides it, which is why so many people swing between panic and relief week to week. Dry, unstyled, same light removes both distortions. Anyone assessing your hair can then compare week one against week eight directly, rather than taking your word for the trend.
Measure the parting too. Hold a ruler across the widest visible point of the scalp at the parting and write down the millimetres. A parting that reads 3 mm in January and 3 mm in April is stable, whatever the wash-day pile looks like, and a stable parting is the single most reassuring measurement there is.
Get a discount on the thinning hair range
Join the Watermans mailing list and we will email a discount code straight to your inbox, so you can try the thinning hair range for less. Made in the UK, over 6.5 million bottles sold since 2012.
Which measurements do trichologists actually use?
A trichology assessment normally adds three things to your home record: a magnified look at the scalp and follicle openings, a pull test where a small bundle of hairs is drawn gently to see how many release, and a staging scale such as the Ludwig scale for women or the Hamilton-Norwood scale for men. Some also run a trichogram, which examines plucked hairs under a microscope.
Understanding those tools in advance keeps you from being impressed by the wrong thing. A magnified camera image looks compelling and tells you about follicle openings and scalp surface, but it is a snapshot, not a trend, and your eight weeks of dated photos carry information it cannot. Our explainers on the trichogram and what it can and cannot show and the Ludwig scale stages cover both in plain terms.
Ask which of these will actually be used, and what the follow-up policy is, before you commit. A single assessment with no comparison point six months later cannot tell you whether anything has changed, which is exactly the question you went in with.
How do you check that a Greenwich trichologist is properly qualified?
Trichologist is not a protected title in the UK, and there is no statutory register, so the checking is yours to do. Two voluntary bodies matter: the Institute of Trichologists and The Trichological Society, both of which publish member listings you can search directly. Most of the trichologists Greenwich lists on those registers will say which body they belong to unprompted, and silence on the point is worth a question.
Three further checks cost nothing. Ask for the consultation fee in writing before you attend, because first consultations are commonly advertised anywhere from about 50 to 150 pounds and central London sits at the top of that range. Ask whether the fee includes a written summary. And ask what happens if the answer is that you need a GP rather than a hair specialist, which is a perfectly good outcome. If your question is about products or a routine rather than a medical one, you can talk to Gail Waterman, our co-founder, as an AI avatar on the Watermans homepage.
A fair warning
A consultation that ends in a long product list and a package price, with no written findings and no follow-up date, has sold you something rather than told you something. Walk away and keep your photographs.
Which everyday habits protect the hair you are measuring?
Four habits reduce breakage-related fall, which is the part of the picture you can detangle from the ends upward with a wide-tooth comb, never brush hair while it is soaking wet and heavy, lower straightener and dryer heat, and loosen tight ponytails and buns that pull at the hairline all day.
Repeated tension at the hairline is worth singling out, because it causes a slow recession that looks exactly like pattern loss and has an entirely different cause. Our guide to textured hair and tension covers the styling side in detail.
Condition Me® Hair Growth Conditioner £13.95
Cholesterol, shea butter, glycerin and hydrolysed lupine protein at £13.95. A breakage-defence conditioner whose job is slip, so the comb passes through instead of snapping fibres on the way.
None of this changes a follicle. What it does is remove breakage from your measurements, so that whatever remains in the numbers is the real signal rather than damage you were causing at the bathroom mirror.
When should you see a GP rather than arrange a hair consultation?
Five findings belong with a doctor first: smooth round bare patches, scalp pain or burning, sores, crusting or persistent scaling, hair coming out in clumps within weeks rather than months, and hair change alongside unexplained weight change, extreme fatigue or heavy periods. None of those is a cosmetic problem.
A GP can arrange blood tests that no hair consultation can, and iron status, thyroid function and vitamin D are the usual starting points. The NHS notes that low iron is a common and correctable cause of tiredness and hair change in the UK, particularly in women with heavy periods. Getting that ruled in or out first is cheaper and faster than any private route.
Scalp symptoms deserve the same seriousness. Redness, tenderness and scaling can point to an inflammatory scalp condition that needs medical care rather than a different shampoo; our page on scalp inflammation and what calms it explains where the line sits.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I track before seeing trichologists Greenwich?
Four to eight weeks of weekly photographs and wash-day shed counts is enough to show a trend. Anything shorter is noise. If you are seeing bare patches, scalp pain or sores, do not wait at all, because those need a GP now rather than a hair assessment later.
Are trichologists Greenwich residents use available on the NHS?
No. Trichology is a private service, and the NHS does not usually cover pattern hair loss because it is classed as cosmetic. Your GP is still the free first step for blood tests and for any scalp condition, sudden patchy loss or hair change with other symptoms.
What does a first trichology consultation cost?
First consultations are commonly advertised from about 50 to 150 pounds, with central London at the higher end. Always ask for the fee in writing, and ask whether it includes a written summary of findings and a follow-up comparison date.
Is it normal to lose more hair on wash day?
Yes. Washing twice a week gathers three or four days of natural shedding into one session, so the wash-day pile looks alarming while the daily average is unchanged. Count on the same day each week and compare like with like.
Can trichologists Greenwich tell me why my hair is thinning?
A trichologist can assess the scalp, stage the pattern and point to likely mechanisms, and a good one will refer you to a doctor when the picture looks medical. Nobody can settle the question from a single visit without the photographic history only you can supply.
Does counting shed hairs actually help?
Counting helps because it replaces a feeling with a number you can compare against your own earlier weeks. A count of 120 means little in isolation; a count rising from 80 to 220 across a month is a genuine signal worth showing someone.
What if my hair loss turns out to be breakage?
Breakage is the most fixable of the three. Gentler detangling, lower heat, looser styling and a conditioner that adds slip usually show a visible difference within a couple of months, because the follicles were never the problem.
What is the bottom line on trichologists Greenwich?
Walk in with evidence and the trichologists Greenwich has to offer become genuinely useful; walk in with a worry and you are buying an opinion. Four weeks of dated photos, weekly wash-day shed counts against the 50 to 100 a day baseline, a parting measurement in millimetres and a note of what changed three months ago will tell you most of what you need, and will tell a specialist the rest. Check the membership register, get the fee in writing, and take anything sudden, patchy or painful to a GP first.
While you are gathering that evidence, take breakage out of the picture, because it is the one part of the count you control this week. A sulfate-free hair growth shampoo with caffeine, rosemary and hydrolysed lupine protein is built to reduce breakage so the length you grow is length you keep.
Sources & references
- NHS, Hair loss, on normal daily shedding of 50 to 100 hairs and on pattern hair loss not usually being available on the NHS.
- DermNet, Telogen effluvium, on shedding beginning two to three months after a trigger and usually settling within about six months.
- DermNet, Female pattern hair loss, on gradual parting widening and staging.
- Institute of Trichologists, member listing, and The Trichological Society, hairscientists.org, the two UK voluntary membership bodies.
- NHS, Iron, and NHS, Blood tests, on iron status and the tests a GP can arrange.
Watermans products are 100% cosmetic and do not treat medical hair loss. Individual results may vary.
