There are few things more closely tied to a woman’s sense of identity than her hair. How we wear it, the way it’s styled or cut, is one of the first things the rest of the world notices. 

Hair is a potent backdrop and a visual expression of personal aesthetics. Not to mention that it can also be a symbol of a woman’s youth, femininity, and control. So, when that powerful veil begins to thin or fall away altogether, the emotional impact can be both disorienting and devastating.

“Hair is more than aesthetics,” says Lars Skjøth, founder and lead researcher of Hårklinikken. “For many women, it’s tied to their sense of self.”

Hair loss in women is a silent epidemic. Unlike male pattern baldness, which is so normalised it’s become the subject of both advertising and light-hearted memes, female hair thinning remains cloaked in embarrassment and confusion. 

Many women suffer in silence, unsure where to turn, and the condition is often dismissed or misdiagnosed by professionals who aren’t trained to treat hair loss as a serious concern, let alone an emotional one.

For Skjøth, this silence is unacceptable. Over the last 33 years, he has made it his mission to not only address the physiological causes of hair thinning but to understand the psychological weight it carries, particularly for women. His approach is methodical, clinical, and perhaps most importantly, empathetic. 

Skjøth has seen first-hand the many ways women experience hair loss and how deeply it can impact their lives. “I had several women coming in to see me in the beginning, and I felt there was a very misunderstood category, very underserved,” he says. “Many women would come in – even the stats we see today, it’s actually known that women are taken less seriously if they go to their doctor and talk about a problem, as opposed to a man.”

That disparity motivated him to dig deeper. “There are so many difficult aspects to female hair thinning that are not just about the normal hereditary hair loss,” he says. “There are also other things in their lives that come into play – the different phases they go through, not just through the ages, but also on a monthly basis. So I dug into that and tried to understand it deeper than I felt other people had understood it.”

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His personal hair story also began in frustration. “I had a lot of issues with my scalp when I was younger,” Skjøth admits. “There were many years of anguish, shame, and things related to that. It was very uncomfortable for me. It led me to go into great measures, sometimes avoiding being social.”

What followed was a seven-year personal mission to research alternatives. “I started to look in health stores and things like that, for more natural shampoo – but that wasn’t really the solution,” he says. “So I started embarking on a little bit of a journey myself. I did several years of research and made the first plant-based extraction from burdock root, which we’re still using today, though in a more advanced version.”

Since opening the first clinic in Copenhagen in 1992, Hårklinikken has become a haven for women seeking answers. Now, it has locations not just in Copenhagen, but also Dubai, Los Angeles, New York, Aarhus, and Reykjavik. “I’ve seen around 70,000 to 80,000 people in my lifetime,” he notes. “Some of them I’ve seen as many as 10 to 30 times.”

Hair loss, Skjøth says, has evolved – and not in a good way. “Hair loss has become more aggressive over the years. I think we’re much more stressed than we think. The way we work, the way we travel, the way we try to handle everything, it plays into how our hair works.” Insufficient sleep, processed foods with low nutrient density, and not moving our bodies enough are things that negatively impact us physically.

Regional environments matter too. “In the UAE, there’s the stress of the climate – very extreme climates with heat and humidity and constant exposure to AC. All of these matters play into how I work with customising the extract formula,” notes Skjøth. What makes Hårklinikken stand apart is its commitment to tailoring each treatment, even offering online consultations for those unable to visit in person. 

“It’s customised not just at the beginning, but throughout the life of a client’s journey with us,” explains Skjøth. “According to how they respond, how compliant they are, their gender, oil production, hair type, ethnic makeup, and many other aspects.” And this takes time. “There will always be people who are looking for the quick fix,” Skjøth admits. “But others definitely start seeing progress just after a few months. We’ve worked for many years to make things easier for people. For example, it’s only one application now. A couple of years ago, it was two applications a day.”

Skjøth is even working on options that may require less commitment. “It might be that we can start several off on every other day. Also, washing the hair – some people who wash daily, now maybe they could wash every other day.” This last – how often people wash their hair – is still one of the biggest myths, he reveals. “A big misconception is that you shouldn’t wash your hair. Typically, less than every other day is not good.”

When it comes to impact, few stories resonate more than that of American actress and talk-show host Ricki Lake. “She had been struggling with hair thinning for 30 years,” he shares. “She trimmed off all her hair and said, ‘I resign.’ But she then tried our treatment and regained all her hair and went public and told her story to the world on Good Morning America.”

What truly sets Hårklinikken apart is the science and patience behind the process. The journey is always ongoing. “It takes anywhere between seven to 10 or 15 years just to develop a new ingredient,” Skjøth says. “There’s an ingredient I developed from an apple. It took seven years to extract it, only to learn that within 48 hours, it would suffer oxidation. Then we developed 100 percent natural fatty acids that it was encapsulated in.”

“We are really at the forefront of many interesting things,” he adds. “There are constantly new things to come. Even for the ones that feel they’ve gotten 60 to 70 percent more hair, there’s more and more to come.”

At the core of it all, Skjøth says, is care. “We’re restoring personal well-being.” And for the countless women whose hair loss has been dismissed, misunderstood, or simply ignored, restoring confidence is everything.