Focus on anti hair loss treatments

The anti hair loss aisle is one of the few places in a chemist where almost nothing on the shelf has been shown to do what the box implies. Two products are the exception, and they are usually the two nobody points you towards.

Answer one question before you spend anything

Are you shedding more hair, or is the hair itself getting finer? The two problems have almost nothing in common and the products that help one do very little for the other.

Sudden, obvious shedding across the whole scalp, in the shower and on the pillow, usually points to telogen effluvium: a large batch of follicles pushed into the resting phase at once. The British Association of Dermatologists notes that shedding typically starts two to three months after the trigger, the trigger being anything from childbirth to a fever, surgery, crash dieting, a thyroid problem or iron deficiency. It generally settles within six to twelve months once the cause is dealt with, and it regrows.

Gradual thinning, with the parting widening or the temples receding and no dramatic shedding, is pattern hair loss. That one is progressive, and it is the only kind the licensed treatments below are designed for. Trying to treat the first with products aimed at the second is the most common and most expensive mistake in this whole category.

The two treatments with proper evidence

Minoxidil, applied to the scalp

Minoxidil is a topical solution or foam that you rub into the scalp, and it is the only licensed option for women. The 5% strength is licensed for men; for women, only the 2% strength carries a licence, though the 5% is sometimes used on the advice of a healthcare professional. It is bought over the counter and is not available on NHS prescription.

Two things about it are worth knowing before you start. It needs at least six months and possibly twelve before any benefit shows, so judging it at week eight tells you nothing. And it commonly causes a burst of shedding in the first four to six weeks, which is upsetting but expected: those are hairs that had already reached the end of their cycle being pushed out by new growth underneath. Skin reactions, dryness, redness, scaling and itching at the application site are the usual side effects, and it should not go on broken skin.

Finasteride, for men only

Finasteride is a 1 mg daily tablet that lowers dihydrotestosterone, the hormone that miniaturises follicles in male pattern hair loss. The British Association of Dermatologists puts the time to a visible benefit at up to fourteen months, and lists decreased libido and erectile problems as recognised side effects in approximately 2% of men taking it.

It is not licensed for women, and anti-androgen treatments of this type are avoided in pregnancy because of the risk of feminising a male foetus. As with minoxidil, the effect only lasts while the treatment does; hair loss restarts once it is stopped.

The ones sold with more confidence than the data supports

Platelet-rich plasma, microneedling and low level laser devices are all offered commercially in the UK, and none of them has strong published evidence behind it yet. The British Association of Dermatologists describes platelet-rich plasma as having limited research, microneedling as having very little, and low level laser light as requiring further research. That is not the same as saying they do nothing. It does mean you are paying for a possibility rather than a result, which is a reasonable choice as long as nobody has told you otherwise.

Rosemary oil is the interesting one, because it does have a trial. Panahi and colleagues, publishing in SKINmed in 2015, compared rosemary oil against minoxidil 2% in 100 people over six months and found no significant difference between the two groups. Worth knowing that this was the weaker minoxidil strength, and that one modest trial is not the same as a body of evidence.

Shampoos, ampoules and supplements, honestly

An anti hair loss shampoo cannot meaningfully change a hair cycle, because it is on your scalp for ninety seconds. Shampoos built around zinc, copper and organic silicon are marketed as long proven, and they are not: there is no trial evidence that they slow pattern hair loss. What a good, non-stripping shampoo genuinely does is keep the scalp comfortable and the hair manageable, which is a fair thing to pay for and a different claim entirely.

Supplements follow the same logic. Correcting a real iron or thyroid problem, confirmed by a blood test, can absolutely stop a shed. Taking a multivitamin because your hair is thinning, without knowing whether you are short of anything, treats a deficiency you may not have. Iron deficiency and thyroid disorders both appear on the British Association of Dermatologists list of telogen effluvium triggers, which is exactly why they are worth measuring rather than guessing at.

What about the salon assessment?

A trichoscope examination in a hair institute is a useful picture, not a diagnosis. Magnifying the scalp shows follicle density and hair calibre, which tells an experienced practitioner a great deal about the pattern. What it cannot do is find the thyroid problem, the low ferritin or the medication side effect underneath it. Only a blood test does that, and only a GP or dermatologist can order and interpret one.

My honest advice, as someone who has spent a career looking closely at people’s hairlines under bad lighting: get the blood test first, then decide what to buy. The NHS is explicit that it is worth seeing a GP to understand the cause before going to a commercial hair clinic. Massage and essential oil treatments in a salon feel lovely and are pleasant to receive. Treat them as that, not as a treatment plan. If you want the wider picture of what to change day to day, I have set it out in what to do first when your hair starts falling.

Questions I get asked most

How much shedding is normal?

Between 50 and 100 hairs a day, according to the NHS, and most of us never notice them. Losing more than that consistently over several weeks is the point at which it is worth investigating rather than treating.

If I start minoxidil, am I on it forever?

For as long as you want the benefit, yes. Both licensed treatments work only while they are being used, and the underlying process resumes when they stop. That is worth deciding on before you start, not eight months in.

Can hair loss just be reversed on its own?

Telogen effluvium usually does, within six to twelve months, once the trigger has passed. Pattern hair loss does not reverse itself, which is precisely why the distinction at the top of this article matters so much.

Losing hair is not a cosmetic footnote, and it is not vanity to mind about it. It is also not, as the older version of this article implied, something you fix with the right bottle. Some hair loss is temporary and needs patience, some is permanent and can be slowed, and telling them apart is worth more than anything you can buy. And for what it is worth, a receding hairline has never stopped anyone finding Bruce Willis or Zinedine Zidane attractive.

Updated 13 August 2026. This is general health information, not a diagnosis or a personalised recommendation. Hair loss can be a sign of an underlying condition, so please see your GP or a dermatologist rather than self-treating on the basis of a blog post.

Sources: NHS, hair loss guidance; British Association of Dermatologists patient information leaflets on male pattern hair loss, female pattern hair loss and telogen effluvium (in consensus with the British Hair and Nail Society); Panahi et al., rosemary oil versus minoxidil 2% in androgenetic alopecia, SKINmed, 2015.