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Hair expert who promises to tackle balding
Muli Musyoka is the only trichologist in East Africa. He says braiding or weaving is not a remedy for dealing with weak hair. Fredrick Onyango
Muli Musyoka is not just the hairdresser next door, he might be the permanent solution to your receding hair line or hair loss, common problems that many Kenyan men and women experience.
He is the only known trichologist—a specialist that studies the root cause of hair problems and recommends remedies.
Unlike most of his classmates at the hair dressing college, Muli Musyoka dared to take a route that few, especially from Africa have attempted studying— trichology— which is the science of human hair.
Mr Musyoka, is now a certified trichologist and at least the only such professional in East Africa according to the International Association of Trichologists (IAT), a course that he studied in Australia.
The former student at Ashley’s Beauty College says it is his passion to go beyond the basics of hairdressing with a bigger picture of solving common hair problems that have for decades, remained a mystery that led him down this path.
“Hairdressing for long was viewed as a course for people who have failed to qualify for other courses. In other continents, hairdressing is a big career and that is why courses like trichology have been most popular there,” he said.
After working for several people including as a hair technician at Haco Tiger Brands Limited, he says, of concern to many hairdressers is how to solve hair and scalp problems.
His trichology skills could be the beginning of locally available solutions to hair problems that have left women and men, especially those in top corporate positions scratching their heads to find ways of maintaining a healthy hair look and tackling receding hairlines just like celebrated footballer Wayne Rooney.
As a trichologist, Mr Muli finds the root cause of problems like hair loss, thinning and receding hair lines among other problems using a trichoscope, a machine that magnifies the scalp and hair and calculates the number of hair strands.
The machine costs about Sh350,000 and uses a minimum of three lenses that costs Sh7,000 each.
It operates on a software that allows the professional to perform specialised diagnosis of a patient’s hair and scalp.
Mr Muli says his work is to demystify myths about hair problems. For example, while it is said that braiding or weaving is a remedy for dealing with weak hair, Mr Muli says this is not true.
“Braiding especially weak hair is the common cause of receding hairline for women. This problem can only be solved by stopping the use of braids,” he said.
In his view, most people rarely associate common scalp and hair problems with medical conditions.
This is where trichology comes in; to bridge the gap between handling the dead part of hair that is mostly a reserve of hair dressers and sustains the living part (the connection between the hair strands and other body systems).
In some instances, hair loss is as a result of a poor diet, he says, but rarely will a hairdresser be able to identify this without the necessary tests to establish which particular nutrients are lacking.
To unsuspecting patients, their money is channelled into buying chemical treatments as a way of mitigating the hair loss instead of one eating basic micronutrients.
In most cases, these oils do not necessarily work and end up proving expensive. Trichologists work together with medics whose services come in for specialised needs like giving prescription drugs, surgeries in case of hair transplants (one of the ways of treating hair loss) and complex tests on patients’ blood and genetic composition.
Consultation costs
“Although trichology involves a lot of scientific studies, it does not make one a medical practitioner. There is a need for trichologists to work with doctors because only such professionals can prescribe drugs to patients when they are required for treatment,” said Mr Muli.
Sometimes hair loss can be as a result of overworking of the sebaceous glands around the scalp that lead to production of excess skin oil. The opposite can also happen where there is less production of skin oil leading to a dry scalp and hair is lost as a result.
While there are myriad of scientific reasons behind hair problems, among the popular ones include use of certain birth control pills or hormonal changes. These are conditions that can be diagnosed by a trichologist.
Mr Muli says, general thinning of the hair can also be as a result of poor hair management.
He says he learnt a lot from a hair clinic in Australia where he was working while studying. A trichologist earns good money in developed countries with most such established professionals charging between Sh5,000 and Sh6,000 for every consultation session that is as short as 30 minutes.
IAT’s membership is restricted to certified trichologists only as a measure to curb quacks in the profession. One has to pay an annual subscription fee of Sh20,000 in addition to having to sit for an annual examination.
The membership to the association allows the professionals to access scientific reports on research studies that have been done on hair and scalp problems as well as giving them a common platform for professional sharing of ideas.
