30 Countries, One Conversation: What I Brought Home From the World Trichology Conference in Paris

Let me be real with you. I’ve sat in a lot of continuing education rooms. Webinars where the “science” is a product pitch in a lab coat. Certifications where the bar is basically “did you pay the fee.” I’m careful about where I spend my education hours, because what I learn is what ends up on your scalp.

The World Trichology Conference in Paris this July was not that. It was clinicians, researchers, and trichologists from over 30 countries in one room, talking about follicles in six plus different accents, and somehow all landing on the same conclusion: hair loss is not one condition. It’s a hundred conditions wearing the same disguise.

The lineup told the story

Over the course of the conference, I heard from clinicians and researchers based in Australia, the UK, France, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa. All presenting on the same core subject from completely different angles. Botlhale Tshetlo (South Africa) walked through considerations specific to African hair. Dr. Lucas Fustinoni (Brazil/USA) covered how to manage weight loss without losing hair (a question that’s come up constantly in my own practice thanks to GLP-1 medications). David Salinger (Australia) closed the day looking at the sympathetic nervous system’s role in the hair follicle. A reminder that hair loss isn’t purely hormonal or purely mechanical; the nervous system has a say too.

Different countries, different populations, same underlying biology, same follicle.

Access is the real gap, not knowledge.

What differs country to country isn’t the science it’s access. Some places have robust trichology training and something close to insurance-adjacent care. Others have almost none, and people are left to self-diagnose off TikTok. That gap is exactly why global collaboration matters. Because research happening in a lab in one country can close a diagnostic gap for someone sitting in my chair in Buford, Georgia.

That’s the whole reason I keep showing up to things like this. Continuing education isn’t a box to check for a license renewal. It’s how I make sure that when you sit down with me, you’re getting the most current, most evidence-based understanding available. Not what was true ten years ago, and not a sales script dressed up as science.

A quick note on screening

Not everything presented at conferences makes it into my practice. Some education is genuinely harmful. Outdated protocols, unverified product claims, or “research” that’s really just marketing with a citation slapped on it. Part of my job is filtering that out before it ever reaches you. If I bring something home from a conference and start talking about it, it’s because it passed that filter. I take this role VERY seriously.

What’s coming next

This one day gave me enough material for several posts, and I’d rather do each topic justice than cram it all in here. Up next: Dr. Amy Vowler’s two sessions on HRT and hormonal hair loss in women.

Stay tuned.