Lesson 1Medication, supplement, and systemic illness review: recent drugs, herbal products, isotretinoin, anticoagulants, thyroid diseaseThis section covers systematic review of prescription drugs, over-the-counter agents, and supplements, emphasising medications and systemic illnesses that trigger or worsen hair loss, and how to document timing, dose, and risk-benefit discussions.
Building a structured medication checklistHair‑relevant prescription and OTC drugsHerbal, bodybuilding, and weight‑loss productsSystemic diseases impacting hair and scalpDocumenting temporal relationships to hair lossLesson 2Psychosocial and lifestyle factors: stressors, psychiatric comorbidity, trichotillomania screeningThis section focuses on identifying psychosocial stressors, psychiatric comorbidities, and body-focused repetitive behaviours, including trichotillomania, and on integrating validated screening tools while maintaining empathy, confidentiality, and nonjudgemental communication.
Eliciting acute and chronic life stressorsScreening for anxiety, depression, and OCDRecognizing trichotillomania and related habitsUsing brief validated mental health toolsCommunicating findings and referral pathwaysLesson 3Red flags and urgent symptoms: scarring signs, severe inflammation, systemic symptoms to prompt urgent workupThis section outlines clinical red flags in hair and scalp disease, including scarring, severe inflammation, pain, systemic symptoms, and rapid progression, and explains how to triage patients for urgent investigations, referrals, or immediate therapeutic action.
Identifying scarring and permanent loss signsSevere inflammation, pain, and pustulesSystemic symptoms needing urgent workupRapidly progressive or fulminant alopeciaCriteria for emergency referral or biopsyLesson 4How to obtain targeted answers: phrasing, structured questionnaires, and timed shedding assessment (hair-pull, hair-count)This section focuses on phrasing questions to avoid bias, using structured questionnaires, and teaching patients timed shedding assessments such as hair-pull and hair-count tests, to obtain reproducible, clinically meaningful quantitative data.
Open, closed, and funnel questioning stylesDesigning concise structured questionnairesStandardized hair‑pull test techniqueHome‑based hair‑wash and hair‑count methodsInterpreting and documenting shedding dataLesson 5Family history and genetic predisposition: androgenetic patterns, age of onset in relativesThis section explains how to explore family history of hair and scalp disorders, recognise androgenetic patterns, and document age of onset and severity in relatives, helping distinguish inherited alopecias from acquired conditions and informing prognosis.
Mapping affected relatives across generationsPatterns of androgenetic alopecia in familiesAge of onset and severity in relativesInherited scarring and syndromic alopeciasUsing family history to counsel prognosisLesson 6Nutritional and dietary assessment: restrictive diets, rapid weight loss, micronutrient intake, vegetarian/vegan considerationsThis section addresses structured dietary history, focusing on restrictive patterns, rapid weight loss, protein and micronutrient intake, and vegetarian or vegan diets, to identify deficiencies or behaviours that may contribute to telogen effluvium or fragile hair.
Assessing overall caloric and protein intakeIdentifying restrictive or fad dietsRapid weight loss and telogen effluvium riskIron, zinc, vitamin D, and B12 intake reviewVegetarian and vegan specific considerationsLesson 7Systematic hair-loss history: onset, tempo, pattern, shedding vs thinning, triggers, hair care practicesThis section teaches how to obtain a structured hair-loss history, clarifying onset, tempo, pattern, shedding versus thinning, triggers, and grooming practices, to differentiate common alopecias and guide targeted examination and diagnostic testing.
Defining onset, duration, and tempo of lossCharacterizing diffuse versus patterned lossDistinguishing shedding from miniaturizationRecent triggers and temporal associationsHair care, styling, and traction historyLesson 8Menstrual, gynaecologic, and endocrine history: menses, pregnancies, contraceptives, polycystic ovary syndrome featuresThis section details how to obtain menstrual, reproductive, and endocrine history, including cycle patterns, pregnancies, contraceptive use, and features of hyperandrogenism, to recognise androgen-mediated alopecia and guide further hormonal evaluation or referral.
Characterizing menstrual cycle patternsPregnancy, postpartum, and lactation historyContraceptive methods and hair implicationsScreening for PCOS and hyperandrogenism signsWhen to request endocrine laboratory testsLesson 9Documentation best practices: standardised intake templates and photo protocols for follow-upThis section explains how to build standardised intake forms, document trichology-specific data, and implement reproducible photo protocols so that disease activity, treatment response, and progression can be reliably compared over time.
Core elements of trichology intake formsRecording hair care and cosmetic proceduresBaseline and follow‑up scalp photography setupStandardizing lighting, angles, and positioningSecure storage and comparison of serial images
