How it works

Three minutes a week. The rest is on us.

Folicle replaces mirror-checking with measurement. You spend ninety seconds taking five aligned photos. The app does the alignment, the scoring, the trend analysis, and the export. Your job is to keep showing up. Here is exactly what happens.

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.

✓3 default zones, expandable up to 6
✓Each zone stores its own reference angle, distance, and lighting baseline
✓Re-mappable at any time without losing prior history

02

Five photos, weekly

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.

✓Live ghost-overlay of last week's frame for precise alignment
✓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, hairline, and shed pattern.

Each new capture is registered against your very first session at the sub-pixel level. The app normalizes exposure and white balance, then runs density estimation, hairline mapping, and shed-pattern analysis on the aligned image. The output is a single 0 to 100 Hair Score with a confidence interval, not a fake decimal that pretends to be precise.

✓Sub-pixel registration to your first reference frame
✓Density, hairline integrity, and shed pattern 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

The FDA-labeled minimum for minoxidil to show visible response is four to six 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 are encrypted on your phone using the Secure Enclave (iOS) or hardware-backed keystore (Android). Inference runs locally via Apple Neural Engine or TensorFlow Lite. Nothing leaves your phone in plaintext.

The timeline

Fourteen weeks. 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