Traction Alopecia: How to Track Your Hairline With Photos
What traction alopecia is, how tension hair loss from braids, weaves and tight ponytails starts, and how dated hairline photos show whether it is growing back.
Traction alopecia is hair loss caused by repeated pulling on the hair, rather than by a hormone or an illness. It is sometimes called tension alopecia or tension hair loss, and it typically shows up where the pull is strongest: the frontal hairline, the temples, the edges above the ears, and sometimes the back of the head where a bun or clip sits.
The common triggers are familiar to anyone who wears protective or tightly styled hair — braids, cornrows, weaves, wigs with tight bands, extensions, tight ponytails and buns, headscarves worn the same way daily, and turbans. Any style held under tension for hours, worn repeatedly over months, can thin the hairline gradually enough that you never notice a single bad day.
That gradual pace is the reason people ask whether traction alopecia can be reversed, and struggle to answer it for themselves. Caught early, when the follicles are irritated but intact, many people see regrowth after the tension is removed. Left for years, scarring can make the loss permanent. Either way, the only honest way to tell which way yours is going is a dated photo record of the same area, taken the same way, over months — not a mirror check on a Tuesday morning.
This is also why frontal hairline photos are worth more than a general head shot. Millimetres matter here, and a photo taken slightly closer, or with the hair pulled back differently, can invent or hide a difference that is not there. A fixed distance, a fixed parting and the same light turn a vague worry into something you can actually read.
Journae is a private photo journal for exactly this kind of slow change. It describes what is visible between two of your photos and gives a confidence level based on how comparable they were. It does not diagnose traction alopecia or any other condition, and it does not recommend treatments — a GP, dermatologist or trichologist does that.
How to photograph a hairline for traction alopecia
- Shoot the frontal hairline, both temples and the crown as a fixed set, in the same order every time.
- Use the same daylight source at the same time of day, and keep the phone at the same height and distance with zoom off.
- Keep the hair in the same neutral state — loose and dry, not freshly braided or slicked back.
- Photograph every two to four weeks; hairline regrowth is measured in months, so daily checks only add noise.
- Note the style you have been wearing, how long it stayed in, and anything a professional has advised.
- Compare across three to six months rather than week to week.
This article describes visual observations and tracking habits only. It is not medical advice and does not diagnose conditions or recommend treatments.
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