![\"Hair](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/107333489-15669485-Hair_thinning_in_middle_age_I_m_51_is_a_common_enough_problem_am-a-1_177421213794.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nIt was my 13-year-old \u00addaughter who called it. \u00adHeading down the escalator at \u00adFenwick last summer, she announced from behind me: \u2018My God, Mum, your hair is thinning. I can see your scalp.\u2019<\/p>\n
Panicked, I got my husband to take photos of the back of my head, which confirmed a noticeable problem. Hair thinning in middle age \u2013 I\u2019m 51 \u2013 is a common enough problem among women, as hormones fluctuate and hair-thickening oestrogen wanes.<\/p>\n
But for me, the issue has been \u00adseriously exacerbated by the use of weight-loss injections. I started taking Ozempic in April 2023 after perimenopause derailed my health.<\/p>\n
Fatigued and lacking in energy, I had steadily put on the pounds, despite upping the exercise and keeping a close eye on nutrition until, at 5ft 6in (and shrinking with age), I weighed about 11st 4lb (72kg) \u2013 about the same as my first full-term pregnancy weight.<\/p>\n
Blood and urine tests flagged up \u00adproblems including pre-diabetes and high cholesterol.<\/p>\n
The solution was clear and, under the supervision of Dr Wendy Denning, a London-based private GP, I took Ozempic for a year, lost more than 1\u00bdst (10kg) and started to feel like myself again. What looked and felt distinctly less healthy, however, was my hair.<\/p>\n
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Hair thinning in middle age \u2013 I\u2019m 51 \u2013 is a common enough problem among women as hormones fluctuate, says Olivia Falcon\u00a0<\/p>\n
The issue with weight-loss \u00adinjections isn\u2019t the GLP-1 medication itself \u2013 it\u2019s the large and rapidly-\u00adoccurring \u00adcalorie deficit.<\/p>\n
When the body senses a significant drop in energy intake, it prioritises vital organs over non-essential \u00adfunctions like hair growth. As a result, more hair follicles shift into the \u00adshedding phase, leading to hair loss.<\/p>\n
Theoretically, this loss is temporary. But in my case, when I switched to microdosing Mounjaro just over a year ago to maintain my healthier weight, and was no longer in a calorie deficit, the hair disaster did not get any better.<\/p>\n
Looking back, it didn\u2019t happen overnight, nor as soon as I started taking Ozempic. About nine months after I first began weight-loss drugs, I regularly noticed clumps of hair in my hairbrush and clogging up the shower drain, to the extent that I cut down hair washes from three times a week to just once.<\/p>\n
At this point, no one else would have noticed. But I did \u2013 and what woman doesn\u2019t covet a glossy, thick head of hair? In women, hair is emotional. It\u2019s so closely tied to our identity, \u00adfemininity and youth, we can\u2019t help but feel alarmed when it changes.<\/p>\n
Thinner hair made me feel older, and this feeling was compounded as people close to me, such as my friend and hair colourist Rebecca Frost at Hari\u2019s salon, who I\u2019ve been going to see every four months for the past 20 years for highlights, noticed. She pointed out that my ponytail was half its usual thickness.<\/p>\n
But I didn\u2019t work for 25 years as a beauty editor for nothing. Today, I run The Editor\u2019s List (editorslist.co.uk<\/a>), a cosmetic concierge service that directs men and women to the world\u2019s top cosmetic surgeons, \u00addoctors and procedures. If anyone could solve the hair-thinning catastrophe, surely I could.<\/p>\n But female hair thinning is a more complex issue to solve than I expected. I tried everything \u2013 from volumising shampoos, which only gave my hair lift for a matter of hours, to a couple of excruciatingly painful rounds of PRP (\u00adplatelet-rich plasma) injections in my scalp.<\/p>\n This latter is a regenerative elixir extracted from your own blood, \u00adcontaining stem cells and growth \u00adfactors to stimulate hair follicles. The catch is that it can be compromised by unhealthy lifestyles or illness, and I was feeling very run down when I did it, so I don\u2019t think my plasma was very potent.<\/p>\n I also tried the topical Regaine treatment containing the drug minoxidil to increase blood flow to the follicles, which was helpful to a point but irritated my scalp.<\/p>\n None of it worked and I felt \u00adincreasingly self-conscious. I wore my hair up in a high ponytail most of the time to comb over the sparse area at the back of my scalp.<\/p>\n And then came a sudden flash of inspiration \u2013 a rather extreme \u00adsolution but, as it proved, a rather \u00adbrilliant one.<\/p>\n On a wet Wednesday in \u00adSeptember last year, I took a male client of The Editor\u2019s List to see Dr Coen Gho at his Hair Science Clinic on Beauchamp Place in south-west London. The purpose was to discuss a hair transplant which, of course, in men is an almost routine procedure nowadays.<\/p>\n So why not in women, too? After the meeting, I hung back to ask if I might be a good candidate.<\/p>\n After scrutinising my scalp, Dr Gho said he could help. Based out of his flagship Hair Science clinic (hasci.com) in \u00adMaastricht in the Netherlands, Dr Gho rotates around clinics in Singapore, Paris and London. I have known him for 16 years and have seen first-hand how effective his hair transplants are.<\/p>\n Back in 2013, he restored my husband\u2019s receding widow\u2019s peak and, since then, I\u2019ve sent scores of men to see him for his signature \u00adnatural, undetectable results.<\/p>\n In fact, you\u2019ve probably seen a lot of his work, too \u2013 while watching Netflix \u2013 his name is a closely-guarded secret among Hollywood\u2019s most hirsute\u00ad-looking actors.<\/p>\n Dr Gho tells me that 60 per cent of men and a very surprising 50 per cent of women suffer from androgenetic \u00adalopecia \u2013 a genetically determined form of hair thinning, which in women tends to affect the scalp generally rather than the hairline at the front.<\/p>\n Since this type of hair loss is a \u00adnatural process and medication can only inhibit it temporarily, hair \u00adtransplantation is the only method to restore hair permanently.<\/p>\n It\u2019s still not a procedure to be undertaken lightly.<\/p>\n The older strip technique \u2013 in which a strip of skin containing hair follicles is removed from the back of head, cut into grafts and implanted in the recipient area \u2013 is notoriously painful and causes scarring. It also requires significant downtime.<\/p>\n That method has now been largely replaced by follicular unit extraction (FUE) \u2013 a more patient-friendly alternative, where individual follicles are extracted with minimal pain and repositioned where needed.<\/p>\n Heading down the escalator at Fenwick last summer, she announced from behind me: \u2018My God, Mum, your hair is thinning. I can see your scalp\u2019<\/p>\n After scrutinising my scalp, Dr Gho said he could help. When we were finally finished, I looked like Frankenstein\u2019s bride with a speckled purple hairline<\/p>\n Everyone \u2013 myself included \u2013 has been suitably impressed with progress. Four months on, I am delighted with the regrowth and new growth<\/p>\n The disadvantage of these techniques, however, is that the extracted hair follicles are removed completely, while the strip method leaves large scars (the FUE smaller pinpoint ones), so the donor area cannot be used for consecutive treatments.<\/p>\n Enter Dr Gho\u2019s own \u00adpatented alternative, Hair Stem-cell Transplantation (HST). This differs from traditional methods in that individual hair follicles are partially harvested from a donor area at the back of the scalp, with the original follicle preserved. It doesn\u2019t leave a scar and the hair can regrow in the donor site, so it can be used for consecutive treatments.<\/p>\n The result of HST is natural density, because the grafts are much smaller than the FUE method and can therefore be implanted closer together.<\/p>\n After all, the goal of hair restoration is to make it as natural as possible, says Dr Gho – so that no one can tell you\u2019ve had it. HST is especially good for women because of shorter downtime and natural results that you can build on with additional treatments.<\/p>\n Women often have diffuse thinning, not a defined bald patch, and their donor area is usually weaker and less dense than men, so preserving donor hair is a major advantage.<\/p>\n With HST it\u2019s possible to achieve higher density because the grafts are much smaller and therefore can be implanted closer together.<\/p>\n On October 28 last year, I arrived for my procedure wearing a tracksuit \u2013 comfort is key because HST takes seven to eight hours.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve \u00adwitnessed this procedure many times and was reassured that it wasn\u2019t usually painful, but when Dr Gho\u2019s assistant turned on an electric shaver to shave the donor area at the back of my head, I did start to feel anxious.<\/p>\n And the shock was visceral three minutes later when I was handed a kidney-shaped dish full of my hair. Oddly keen to hang on to it, I asked for an envelope so I could take it home. I guess my emotional attachment to my hair was bigger than I realised.<\/p>\n Next, the shaved patch of my scalp was disinfected with a \u00adtopical solution and numbed with local anaesthetic injections.<\/p>\n For the hair follicle harvesting itself, I lay face down on the treatment bed for nearly three hours, as the team spliced and extracted 701 hair grafts.<\/p>\n These precious spliced follicles were then left to soak in a Petri dish containing a custom-made, patented preservation solution (while Dr Gho and I ate lunch). Afterwards, he donned a headlight and glasses and began to draw black dots with a surgical pen on the front of my head as a guide for my new hairline.<\/p>\n Using tiny punctures called punch grafts, he then implanted the new hair, one \u00adfollicle at a time, like a tapestry, on to my temples, the front of my hairline and on my crown. This wasn\u2019t painful but I did feel slightly heavy-headed with all the buzzing around my scalp.<\/p>\n At about 4.30pm, we were finally finished and I looked like Frankenstein\u2019s bride with a speckled purple hairline that I was told would scab and then sprout the precious new hair.<\/p>\n I did find it slightly hard to \u00adconcentrate as the team ran through the aftercare plan. For the next three days, I was to ice my scalp with a cool compress every few hours. I was also given a course of antibiotics to avoid infection and the steroid pred\u00adnisolone to reduce swelling, plus Dr Gho\u2019s bespoke antioxidant blend of vitamins to help with new capillary formation. I was also given a packet of paracetamol, although I never needed to take one as there was no pain.<\/p>\n My scalp felt tender to the touch and I did have a few sleepless nights. I was told not to sleep on my side or let my hairline or the donor area of my head touch anything, which proved incredibly challenging and meant sleeping on my back with a blow-up neck pillow lifting the back of my head up.<\/p>\n Olivia says she hopes more women consider transplants as ‘why should men enjoy all the benefits’<\/p>\n Respite came in the form of The Recovery Pillow, a silk covered U-shaped pillow designed for sleeping on your back after surgery, which offers excellent neck support and kept my wounds away from the bedclothes.<\/p>\n On day three, I was relieved finally to be allowed to wash my hair gently. I was expecting some of the hair grafts to fall out but a forensic inspection of the shower drain revealed not a single casualty. To encourage hair growth I was directed to add a spritz of minoxidil spray to my hairline and the donor area, but was forbidden from using a \u00adhair\u00addryer for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n Despite Dr Gho\u2019s aftercare regime, my forehead did swell. I think this was a reaction to all the local anaesthetic. I found my hand-held Lyma device \u2013 an at-\u00adhome, cold laser gadget \u2013 really helped reduce the swelling.<\/p>\n In week two \u2013 oh joy \u2013 the small scabs on my scalp started to fall off and it became incredibly itchy.<\/p>\n Dr Gho had provided a soothing camomile cream, which worked a treat but made my hair look greasy and lank, so I switched to Obagi\u2019s Nu-Cil BioStim Scalp Serum, which claims to encourage hair regrowth and contains a host of anti-inflammatory ingredients. This made my hair much less greasy and crusty.<\/p>\n Over the next month, my hair took on a life of its own. Friends, family and even strangers who have been following my hair transplant journey on Instagram (@theeditorslist) expressed a David Attenborough-like fascination with the flora and fauna on my scalp. I was regularly asked to tilt my head for inspection, which I didn\u2019t mind at all. Everyone \u2013 myself included \u2013 has been suit\u00adably impressed with progress.<\/p>\n Four months on, I am delighted with the regrowth and new growth.<\/p>\n My new hair still has a way to grow to get to shoulder length (maybe another year), but there is enough hair growth at the back of my head for my colourist to start to work with.<\/p>\n My hairline has completely healed and new tufts of hair are growing in strong. Dr Gho has an artist\u2019s eye and had placed the new hairs perfectly, so my new hairline looks completely natural.<\/p>\n He says I won\u2019t see the full results for another six months, but it feels like I have already regained some density and the dreaded area at the back of my head is much improved \u2013 I look quite fluffy with all the new growth.<\/p>\n The drawback? At \u00a35,000 to \u00a310,000, depending on how many grafts you go for, this treatment can be very expensive. Plus, women, who tend to have diffuse thinning rather than a defined bald patch, often need a second transplant to build up density and full coverage.<\/p>\n Yet, for a confidence boost, it\u2019s unbeatable. I hope more women are brave and curious enough to consider a transplant. Why should men enjoy all the benefits?<\/p>\n Follow Olivia Falcon @theeditorslist.Hair Stem-cell Transplantation costs from \u00a3750 to \u00a311,750 depending on the number of grafts needed. Consultation is complimentary. Some patients may require two treatments. 5 HAIR BOOSTS (NO SURGERY REQUIRED!)\u00a0 <\/p>\n Obagi Nu-Cil BioStim Scalp serum, \u00a3135<\/p>\n skinstation.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n This peptide-packed formula contains biotin and 18 hair nutrients to improve scalp hydration, soothe irritation, balance oil and strengthen roots without any greasy residue. It can be applied to wet or dry hair. Expect to see improved hair condition after two weeks of daily application.<\/p>\n CurrentBody Skin LED Hair Helmet, \u00a3649.99<\/p>\n currentbody.com<\/a><\/p>\n A subtle way to boost thinning hair, this rechargeable helmet delivers 660nm red and near infrared LED light to the scalp (the optimum wavelength for hair growth, according to studies).<\/p>\n I wear it for just ten minutes a day to help energise hair follicles and improve scalp circulation.<\/p>\n Perricone triple keratin Repair Shampoo, \u00a330, and Conditioner, \u00a330<\/p>\n perriconemd.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n A deep cleanse that infuses the hair with keratin and locks in moisture (excellent for ageing, dry and frizzy hair). It also smooths cuticles for stronger hair to stand up to the heat of a hairdryer and styling tools.<\/p>\n Vida Glow Hairology advanced repair, \u00a345<\/p>\n![\"Heading](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/107333481-15669485-Heading_down_the_escalator_at_Fenwick_last_summer_she_announced_-m-108_1774205041.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Everyone](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/107333483-15669485-Everyone_myself_included_has_been_suitably_impressed_with_progre-m-111_1774205136.jpeg\")
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