A 46-year-old Danish journalist who noticed thinning on the crown of his head has taken readers of the business newspaper Børsen inside the hair-loss industry, visiting two clinics in Copenhagen where specialists examined his scalp and laid out his options. John Christopher Correll's account, summarised by Dagens PS, describes a market crowded with oils, serums, light treatments and transplant packages sold as holiday deals — and a scientific record that varies sharply from product to product.
At Hårklinikken, Correll saw magnified images of his hair follicles. Hair at the back of his head was strong, while many follicles on the crown were producing noticeably finer strands. Clinic founder Lars Skjøth estimated that Correll could shed roughly another 30 percent of his hair over the next decade. Dagens PS notes that this was an assessment of one man's scalp rather than a firm medical forecast, and that Skjøth's business sells hair-loss treatments — a fact worth weighing when judging how independent such a projection is.
Why it matters
Hair loss is a large and growing commercial category, and it sits at an awkward intersection: a genuine medical condition that also invites lifestyle marketing. Men unsettled by a receding hairline are met on social media by a stream of rosemary oil, advanced serums, light therapy devices and clinics advertising transplants abroad. Dagens PS frames the trend as part of a wider beauty-industry push to sell treatments that promise to slow visible ageing, with hair loss now an arena where medical methods compete against products whose effects are much harder to assess.
The practical stakes are not trivial. Starting treatment at the right time can preserve hair that would otherwise be lost, while spending money on unproven products can delay that decision. And one of the two best-supported drugs carries serious side-effect risks that patients need to understand.
The two treatments with real evidence
According to Dagens PS, hereditary hair loss — androgenetic alopecia — is the most common reason men gradually lose hair. Some follicles are genetically sensitive to dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, a hormone that causes them to shrink. Strands become thinner and the growth phase shortens, until growth in certain areas can stop altogether.
Two medicines have established scientific backing for this condition: minoxidil and finasteride.
Minoxidil is applied to the scalp and is available without a prescription at Swedish pharmacies. It can stimulate growth and slow thinning, but results differ between users, the effect depends on continued use, and improvement may take several months to appear.
Finasteride requires a prescription and works by reducing DHT production. It can slow hereditary hair loss in men, but carries side-effect risks. Following a European safety review, Sweden's Medical Products Agency tightened its information on the risk of low mood, depression and suicidal thoughts, and sexual side effects can also occur. Patients are advised to stop treatment and contact a doctor if they experience low mood, depression or suicidal thoughts.
Dagens PS points out that the national health guidance available to Swedish clinicians through 1177 describes the effect of these drugs as moderate — a markedly more cautious formulation than the dramatic regrowth often promised in advertising.
Needles, surgery and the limits of both
At Pilorum Hårklinik in Copenhagen, nurse and clinic manager Tanja Holm Andersen told Børsen that men seek help as early as their twenties, and that the clinic also receives enquiries from parents of teenage boys, though it does not treat anyone under 18. Timing matters, she explained: follicles that still produce hair can be stimulated, but options shrink considerably once they stop functioning.
Not everyone who sheds hair has the hereditary form. Illness, stress and certain medications can cause temporary thinning, and according to 1177 the hair often returns once the underlying cause is resolved — which is why understanding the reason for loss matters before treatment begins.
Beyond the two established drugs, the menu is broad. Rosemary oil, peptides, custom-blended serums and various light treatments are marketed to men who want to avoid medication or surgery. PRP, or platelet-rich plasma, also appears at clinics: the patient's blood is spun in a centrifuge to concentrate platelets, and the plasma is then injected into the scalp. Research has examined whether this improves hair growth, but findings are inconsistent and the evidence base is weaker than for the established drugs. At Pilorum, PRP is used mainly alongside hair transplants, Andersen said.
Transplants have their own limits. Follicles are moved from denser areas, usually the back of the head, into thinning regions. Results can last a long time, but the procedure does not halt further loss in follicles that were never relocated.
During his Hårklinikken visit, Correll received more than a forecast. He was also shown the clinic's own serum, formulated for the individual customer's scalp and intended for regular, long-term use. That raises a fair question about commercial advice: how should a customer weigh a prediction about future hair loss when the same business sells a product claimed to improve the situation?
Dagens PS is careful here. Selling treatments does not make a clinic's assessment wrong. But a forecast about future thinning is hard to verify, and individual before-and-after photos cannot show how much a serum achieved compared with no treatment at all. Establishing that would require controlled studies comparing results against a suitable control group, and Børsen's report describes no such independent trial of the serum Correll was offered.
Despite the uncertainty, he decided to try it. By the end of the article he describes his new routine: washing his hair every other day and then massaging the serum into his scalp. He had not yet seen any result.
Watch for whether regulators or consumer authorities in the Nordic countries turn their attention to the marketing of unproven hair products, and for clearer clinical guidance on how patients should choose between medication, PRP and surgery.
