How to Take Hair Progress Photos You Can Compare

Two photos are only comparable when they were taken the same way. Pick a fixed set of views, shoot them in the same spot with the same light, from the same distance, with your hair prepared the same way, and write down anything you could not keep the same. A phone, a steady surface and a few pieces of tape are enough.

Why casual photos mislead

A bathroom selfie under a ceiling light and a photo by a sunny window can make the same head of hair look completely different. Overhead light shines off the hair and lights up the scalp between strands. Side light hides it. Holding the phone a little closer, tilting your head a few degrees or photographing damp hair changes the picture again.

Dermatology clinics solve this with global photography: a fixed set of whole-scalp views taken with the head and camera held in the same positions and the same lighting at every visit. A 2023 review in Cutis names the four standard views as frontal, temporal, midline (the top of the head along the part) and vertex (the crown, photographed from above), and notes that comparisons over time depend on repeating the lighting and camera settings. A 2025 guide from UK hair-specialist dermatologists in Clinical and Experimental Dermatology lays out standard protocols built so that clinics without a photography unit can still repeat the same views. You do not need their equipment, but you can borrow the principle: decide the setup once and repeat it.

Set up once

Choose a spot you can return to every time, with one main light source you can control. A room with a window works well if you always shoot at about the same time of day; a bathroom with a single overhead light works if you always use that light and nothing else. Avoid mixing daylight and lamps, and turn off the flash.

Then make the setup repeatable:

• Mark two phone positions. One at eye level for the front, temple and wide views; one higher, angled down, for the top and crown views. A shelf, a stack of books or a cheap tripod works for the first; a raised tripod, or a helper holding the phone from the same spot each time, works for the second. Put a small piece of tape where the phone sits in each spot.
• Use the same camera every time. The front camera lets you see the frame while you shoot alone; the rear camera is usually sharper if someone is helping. Pick one and stay with it.
• Mark where you stand or sit. Tape on the floor or a chair in the same place keeps your distance to the camera the same.
• Use the timer. A 3 to 10 second timer lets you set your head position with both hands free and removes the shake from tapping the shutter.
• Turn on the grid. Line up your hairline, part or crown with the same grid line each time.
• Lock focus and exposure. With your head in place, lock them on the area you are photographing so the camera does not brighten or darken the frame on its own.

On an iPhone, Apple's guide puts the timer in the camera tools menu (3, 5 or 10 seconds), turns on the grid and level under Settings > Camera, and locks focus and exposure when you touch and hold the focus area until AE/AF Lock appears. Android camera apps have similar timer and grid options; menu names vary by maker, so check your phone's own camera help.

Write the setup down the first time: room, light, both phone positions, camera, distance, timer. That note is what you will match next month.

The five views

Take the same five views at every check-in: six photos in all, counting both temples. Keep your face relaxed and your eyes level, and frame each view the same way.

1. Front hairline. Face the camera at eye level, hair pushed back off the forehead so the whole hairline shows from temple to temple.
2. Temples, left and right. Turn your head so one side faces the camera, then the other. The temple is the corner where the hairline meets the side of the head.
3. Top along your part. Tilt your head forward so the camera looks down the line of your usual part, from front to back.
4. Crown. The crown is the upper back of the head, where hair often changes direction. Photograph it from directly above, with your chin tucked. This is the hardest view to repeat. A second person or a phone mounted above head height on a timer helps; if you hold the phone yourself, use the same camera as your other views, keep your arm at the same height each time, check each photo and retake it if the framing is off.
5. Wide frame. One head-and-shoulders photo from the front gives context for the close views: hair length, style and overall shape.

Prepare your hair the same way

Clinics photograph hair that has been washed, dried and combed, with no product. The Cutis review explains why: wet hair reflects more light and clumps together, which exposes more scalp and makes hair look thinner than it is.

For home photos, that means:

• Shoot with clean, completely dry hair, before styling products.
• Comb it the way you normally wear it and use the same part every time.
• If you just had a haircut or changed your style, take the photos anyway and record it in your log. A shorter cut shows more scalp in the top and crown views without anything else having changed.

Your capture card

Keep this card with your phone or in your notes app and check it before each session.

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Keep a photo and routine log

Photos alone lose their context. A short log answers the questions you will have in three months: Was my hair wet? Had I just had a haircut? Was it a different light? Keep it in a notes app or spreadsheet with one row per session.

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The routine check-in column is a quick honest note on what you actually did that month, not what you planned to do. The hair column records any cut or style change, which explains a frame that suddenly looks different.

Your first 30 days and after

1. Day 1: baseline. Set up, take all five views, name the files and fill in the first log row.
2. Day 30: repeat. Use the capture card, match the setup and take the same five views.
3. Every month after: one set. Daily photos mostly record lighting and styling differences. A monthly set is easier to keep consistent and to compare.

Keep all sessions in one album or folder named by date. Copy the setup note into each log row so mismatches are easy to spot later.

Compare fairly

When you look back, compare like with like:

• Put the same view from two dates side by side, at the same size, rather than scrolling between them.
• Compare only sessions whose log rows show the same setup. If the light, distance or hair state was different, note it and compare against the next matching set instead.
• Look at the whole sequence across several months, not just two frames.

The log is what makes this possible. Two photos with a matching setup note tell you far more than ten photos without one.

Fit the photos into your routine

If you use Loxstar, keep the photo session separate from application. The current directions are once daily on a clean scalp after showering: a pea-size amount on thinning areas, 30 seconds of massage, and 5 minutes to dry before styling. Take your monthly photos before applying, on dry product-free hair, then apply as usual. For placing the serum through longer hair, see our long-hair scalp application guide. A steady routine and a steady photo method make each other easier to keep.