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Standardizing the 60-second hair count
Carina A Wasko1, Christine L Mackley, Leonard C Sperling
1Department of Dermatology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
Objective:
To define the range of normal for a standardized 60-second hair count in men without alopecia.
Design:
Convenience sample.
Setting:
Hospital-based practice.
Participants:
The study included 60 healthy men (age range, 20-60 years) without evidence of alopecia.
Main Outcome Measure:
Range of normal for a standardized 60-second hair count.
Results:
Among the 20- through 40-year-old men, the shedding range was 0 to 78 hairs, with a mean of 10.2 hairs. Among the 41- through 60-year-old men, the range was 0-43 hairs, with a mean of 10.3 hairs. Low intrapatient variability for hair counts was found in both age groups, indicating consistent results on consecutive days for all participants. When repeated 6 months later in both age groups, the hair counts did not change much. The hair counts were repeated and verified by a trained investigator, with results similar to those of subject hair counts.
Conclusion:
A properly performed 60-second hair count is a simple, practical, and reliable tool for the assessment of hair shedding.
