Can I Measure Miniaturization Of Hair With a iPhone And What Percentage of Bulk Measurement Is Normal?

For the Haircheck device what is considered a normal percentage for non-balding male 5-8% or more? what percentage would normal for a non balding male from the donor hair to the hair on front, top and the crown?if some of hairs diameters look different when I take a picture up close with my iPhone is that normal for a non balding male my dermatologist said you really can’t do that unless you have digital handheld microscope.Can you tell miniaturization by just taking a picture of your hair? My dermatologist said I had no thinning or signs of male pattern baldness and I have thick hair. Thank you again and look forward to hearing back from you! Have a great day!

Bulk measurements measures an area of hair that is gathered in a particular area of the scalp. We take several measurement on different areas of the scalp. We compare the bulk measurement from area to area. The back of the head is our baseline as this area always shows what a normal bulk will be for each person. When we compare area to area, we can tell if the bulk in one area is less than the bulk measurement from the back of the head and by how much. For example, the top of the head may have a bulk measurement equal to 50% of the back of the head and this would indicate that the person lost half of his hair volume on the top of the head. We also look at the measurements taken over a period of time (about one year) to see if there have been changes. For example, maybe last year the top of the head showed a bulk measurement of 50% of the back of the head, but today it might show a bulk measurement of 25% of the bulk measurement from the back of the head (such a finding would show progression of hair loss over the past year). This way we can put a number or a metric to the hair loss or gain. This will help the patient in developing a long term plan. It’s better than a photo.

There is a margin of error of up to 10%. You can probably measure the same location at the same location within a minute and get a small variation in the measurement. Every doctor may be different in how they go about using the bulk measurements. The number values are not important if there is no one to give you the analysis or a meaning to the numbers so that you understand the big picture.

Finally, you can’t look at miniaturization with an iPhone or a photo. We look at miniaturization with a microscope that has a 50x zoom lens. Miniaturization is also looking at comparisons between one location of the scalp to another location and seeing if there is a pattern of very thin hairs to normal thickness hairs. This suggests some early balding if the number of fine hairs is significantly larger than the number of normal hairs; however, this is hard to replicate and as it measurement only an area the size of a pea, it is far less accurate than the bulk measurement made with the Hair Check instrument.