How it works

Five progress photos. One calmer timeline.

Folicle replaces mirror-checking with repeatable evidence. You take the same five scalp photos, keep treatment notes beside them, and review the trend over months instead of reacting to one harsh-lighting photo.

Walk through the steps The method

9:41

Wednesday · Apr 15

Good morning, Mark

M

Hair Score

74

· good ·

AI Trend

73%

Recovery

75%

Streak

6d

Log your day

treatments · sleep · mood · scalp

Last 14 days

↑ 4.2

What's driving it

Steady progress, your routine is working.

Home

Coach

Timeline

Plan

01

Map your scalp

Pick the zones you care about. We remember the angles.

Most people start with three zones: crown, temples, and the frontal hairline. You can also map mid-scalp parting if you have diffuse pattern thinning. The mapping takes about 90 seconds and only has to happen once. From there, every weekly capture refers back to the same anatomical landmarks.

✓5 fixed angles per session: front hairline, top crown, left temple, right temple, back
✓Each angle stores its own reference framing for week-to-week alignment
✓Re-do a session anytime — your reference frame is preserved

02

Weekly 5-angle session

90 seconds. Hands-free. Same angle, every time.

The app guides you frame by frame. A live overlay shows the silhouette of your last week's capture, so you adjust your phone until the new shot matches. Hands-free tripod mode works with the volume buttons or a Bluetooth shutter. Auto-capture fires the moment alignment is within tolerance, so you do not need to hold a pose.

✓Per-angle alignment guide to match your reference framing
✓Auto-capture on alignment match (no shake from tapping the screen)
✓Lighting normalization tag flags shots taken under harsh or yellow light
✓Skip a week and Foli does not guilt you - your streak just pauses

03

Honest comparison

AI normalizes, then scores density, coverage, hairline, caliber, and scalp health.

Each new capture is matched against your first reference session for that angle. The analysis estimates density change, coverage change, hairline change, hair caliber change, and scalp condition, then rolls them into a single 0 to 100 Hair Score with a confidence interval — not a fake decimal that pretends to be precise.

✓Anchored to your first reference session per angle
✓Density, coverage, hairline, caliber, and scalp health measured separately, then combined
✓Confidence interval reflects how clean the input was, not just the model output
✓Methodology documented publicly - no black box

04

Adjust your routine

See what's working in plain language. No fearmongering.

Foli, the in-app coach, reads your photos and treatment log and surfaces the smallest next step. If your minoxidil shed peaked at week 6 and is now declining, Foli says so. If your Hair Score has been flat for 90 days on the same protocol, Foli flags it as a re-evaluation moment. Suggestions, never prescriptions. Every alert cites the photo it came from.

✓Plain-language coaching tied to specific photos and dates
✓30+ pre-built treatment protocols (minoxidil, finasteride, dutasteride, microneedling, supplements)
✓Reminder nudges that respect quiet hours and Focus modes
✓One-tap PDF export sized for a dermatologist consult

The method

Why the photo matters more than the model.

Alignment is the whole trick

Hair grows ~1 cm per month on scalp. Without aligned photos, you cannot tell that signal from the noise of lighting, haircut, hairstyle, and angle. Folicle's first job is to make the photo identical week to week. The score comes second.

Months, not weeks

Clinical studies show minoxidil typically reaches visible response in 3 to 6 months; the FDA label notes results may take up to 4 months. Finasteride is similar. Folicle is built around that lag — the entire UX is calibrated for slow signal over a 90 to 180 day window, not daily anxiety.

On-device by default

Photos travel TLS-encrypted from your phone to our Supabase storage, where row-level security keeps them private to your account. Hair Score analysis runs in our backend via the Google Gemini API as our sub-processor — they operate under a zero-retention policy and do not train on customer data.

The timeline

Every week. One angle. Honest progress.

Scrub a zone left and right to compare any two weeks. The timeline is filterable by treatment and month, so you can isolate what changed when you added microneedling, or when you went twice weekly with topical finasteride. Export the comparison as a clean PDF for your dermatologist.

See the iOS build See the Android build

9:41

Timeline

Zone

Top / Crown

14 photos · since Jan 6