Who writes Templeline, and how

Templeline is a small, independent website about the receding hairline: reading it, living with it and deciding what, if anything, to do about it. It exists because most of what ranks for those questions is written by someone selling a treatment, and the most useful facts, such as what the drug labels actually say about the temples, are the ones that get left out.

Writers, not clinicians

We are writers and editors who read sources carefully. We are not doctors, dermatologists, surgeons, pharmacists or barbers, and nobody with those qualifications has reviewed this site. We say that plainly here and in a box near the top of every page that discusses a medicine or a procedure, because a site about a health question should never let you assume more authority than it has.

That means Templeline cannot diagnose you, recommend a treatment for you or tell you whether an operation is right for you. It can tell you what the published sources say, where they disagree, and which questions to take to someone who can examine you.

Where the facts come from

Every fragile fact on the site has a source we read, and the date we read it. Our main sources are:

• US drug labels on DailyMed, including the prescribing information for Propecia and the Drug Facts for minoxidil solution;
• MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus Genetics, from the US National Library of Medicine;
• patient pages from the American Academy of Dermatology and the NHS;
• DermNet, the dermatology reference;
• peer-reviewed articles and the StatPearls review on hair transplantation, read through PubMed;
• the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, for its patient-safety campaign and its practice census.

Where a claim could not be traced to a source of that kind, we left it out. The clearest example is the popular idea that a mature hairline sits a fixed distance above the forehead crease: every version we found came from a clinic or product blog, and they contradict each other, so we do not print one.

What we will never publish

Some things are off this site on principle: dosing instructions of any kind; before-and-after photographs or drawings that imply a result; success rates we cannot source; rankings or reviews of clinics or surgeons; speculation about any real person's hair; and quotes from patients or users. The people in our illustrations are drawn, not photographed, and they show the stages of a hairline, never the result of a treatment.

How the site is paid for

A few links on Templeline pay us if someone signs up. They are marked where they appear, and our affiliate disclosure lists each one, what it is, and the programmes we refused. Money never decides what a page says. On every page that mentions a paid route, we also name at least one that pays us nothing, and it is usually the one we would try first.

Corrections

If you find a fact that is wrong, out of date or unsourced, please tell us through the contact page. We would rather fix a sentence than defend it. The date at the foot of each page shows when its facts were last checked.

Where to start

If you are new here, start with our guide to the receding hairline, from diagnosis to haircuts, then read how to tell a mature hairline from a receding one.