Manova Journal

Health advice you can check

Plain-English guides to weight, medicines and everyday health. Written by our editorial team, medically reviewed by our clinical lead, and referenced so you can follow the evidence yourself.

Shaving your head: a practical guide to doing it well

Not a white flag. For a lot of men it is the point at which they stop thinking about their hair several times a day, which is worth something on its own.

September 3, 2026

Start here

Three pieces that answer most of what people ask us first.

01What is a healthy BMI in the UK?The ranges, who they work for, and the 30-second check that tells you more. 02Calorie deficit explainedWhy the arithmetic everyone quotes is wrong, and what to do instead. 03Why am I not losing weight?Nine reasons the scales stall, in the order they are actually likely.

Weight loss

Health advice you can check

Shaving your head: a practical guide to doing it well

Start here

Weight loss

Weight loss

Metabolic adaptation: three different things people call one thing

Everyone quotes the Biggest Loser study. Almost nobody quotes the part where metabolic slowing did not predict who regained, and the people who kept most weight off had slowed down the most.

Weight loss

Weight cycling: a risk marker that keeps being read as a cause

The headline is that weight cycling is dangerous. The problem is that losing weight without meaning to is a sign of serious illness, and no observational study has managed to separate the two.

Weight loss

Set point theory: a biased range, not a thermostat

There is a version of this idea that is true and useful, and a version that tells people their weight is fixed for life. The second one is not supported by the evidence, and it puts people off trying.

Weight loss

Appetite hormones: what they do, and what the famous study really showed

One small Australian study is cited constantly as proof that your hormones never forgive you for losing weight. It had fifty people and no control group. What it did show is still interesting.

Weight loss

Insulin resistance: what it is, and why the NHS will not measure it

Private testing companies will sell you an insulin resistance score tomorrow. The people who invented the score published a paper explaining why you should be careful with it.

Weight loss

Metabolic syndrome: a label the UK does not actually use

It has a name, a set of numbers and a Wikipedia page. What it does not have is a NICE guideline, an agreed cause, or a treatment that differs from treating each part separately.

Latest

Hair

Hair care and styling damage: telling breakage apart from hair loss

Hair found on the floor with a small white bulb on the end came out of the follicle. Hair without one snapped. Almost everything useful follows from that distinction.

Hair

Hair loss and anabolic steroids: what they accelerate and what may not come back

Steroids do not give you a hair loss gene you did not have. They compress a process that might have taken fifteen years into two or three.

Hair

PRP for hair loss: promising, unstandardised, and not a replacement for anything

The evidence is more positive than sceptics allow and much less useful than clinics imply, for one reason: no two clinics are doing the same thing.

Hair

Beard and eyebrow hair loss: the red flags that matter most

Scalp hair loss gets all the attention. Eyebrow loss is the one that more often means something, and occasionally means something urgent.

Hair

Hair loss and PCOS: what the pattern tells you, and what it doesn’t

Hair thinning gets people sent for PCOS testing constantly. The guideline is surprisingly clear that on its own, it is one of the weaker reasons to look.

Hair

Hair loss and thyroid disease: why the shedding often starts after treatment does

The most common thyroid hair question is why the shedding got worse once treatment started. The answer is a lag, not a failure, and it is not a reason to stop.

Hair

Dandruff and seborrhoeic dermatitis: what it is, what it isn’t, and whether it causes hair loss

A flaky scalp is not an infection, not a hygiene failure, and not a cause of pattern baldness. It can still make your hair shed, and it is worth treating properly.

Hair

Traction alopecia: the hair loss caused by how hair is worn

Almost the only hair loss with a single, identifiable, removable cause. Which is good news, right up until the point where it stops being reversible.

Sexual health

Sleep and sexual function: the link most men miss

Testosterone is made largely while you are asleep, and erections happen there too. Treating the night is one of the more overlooked routes to fixing the day.

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