The Minus One Rule of Hairwash in Monsoon

Aims: The Asian subcontinent has a well-defined monsoon season; however, it is still uncertain whether hair loss increases during the monsoon. Scant literature is available on correlation between hair wash frequency and hair loss. This small cross-sectional study aimed to objectively assess whether patients perceived increased hairfall during monsoons. In addition, we aimed to formulate a hairwash frequency schedule to help in reducing seasonal hairfall in monsoon.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study

Place and Duration of Study: Kaya Skin Clinics, New Delhi, India. The Study was conducted from August 2020 till September 2020

Methodology: After due consent, 25 females who were experiencing hairfall and not taken any hair salon treatment in the last 3 months were enrolled during the months of August and September. Patients with medical comorbidities and other hair disorders were excluded. A new concept by the name of “minus 1 rule” was formulated where 1 implied 24 hours. A hairwash schedule based on this concept was given for four washes. Hair shed during each wash were collected and a validated Hair Shedding Visual Scale based on hair length was used by the principal investigator to score the samples.

Results: Seventy six percent experienced maximum hairfall in monsoon. The mean Hair shedding Visual Scale scores at baseline and the third wash were 5.24±1.82 and 4.32±1.76 respectively and this difference in mean scores was statistically significant (P value <0.00001).

Conclusion: This study found a statistically significant reduction in hair fall visual scale scores with a hairwash 24 hours prior to the need for a wash during the monsoon season. In addition, we found that majority females reported hairloss during the monsoon season. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which has attempted to find a relation between hair wash frequency and hair loss during the monsoon season.