Hair health might seem simple…until it isn’t. In the Gulf, the small stuff adds up: humidity that clings, late-night tea turning habitual, office AC hard as winter. You wake, notice more hair in the drain, and do what everyone does: swap shampoos, stretch out wash days, chase supplements your feed swears by. That’s usually when you hear about Hårklinikken and its founder, Danish researcher Lars Skjøth, who’s built a reputation on something quietly radical—treat the scalp like skin, and treat people like people, not hair types. As he puts it, “He speaks in careful, practical terms that make the subject feel less like a mystery and more like something you can manage with patience and consistency.”
The origin story begins with his own scalp, which lived through redness and irritation during his teenage years, a familiar cycle for anyone who has tried medicated washes and steroid creams that help on paper but feel punishing in practice. That frustration nudged him toward human nutrition and biochemistry, then into years of tinkering with formulas for personal relief rather than public marketing. “So it set me on a journey to develop something—not with the intention of starting a business, but simply to help myself,” he tells MILLE. “That period lasted about seven years, during which I began studying human nutrition and biochemistry, before opening my first company in 1992 at the age of 25.” From the very beginning, he insisted on keeping a lab inside each clinic so research and reality could exist side by side. You test on Monday, adjust on Friday, and follow clients over weeks and months rather than chasing product launches.
From the start, he built Hårklinikken as part science lab, part luxury clinic. Walk through the doors in Dubai and the atmosphere doesn’t feel medical in the intimidating sense; it feels serene. Yet, behind the scenes, every vial and extract is logged, measured, and adjusted. In the back rooms, technicians in lab coats work quietly, mixing bespoke formulations for each client. Skjøth calls them “extracts,” but clients often refer to them more romantically as potions—because no two are the same. Each one is made for a specific scalp, with adjustments based on genetics, hormones, lifestyle, and even how consistently the person can follow instructions.
The system revolves around customized extracts that change with you, which might sound like branding until you realize how much of it comes down to something unglamorous: compliance. If your routine realistically happens four nights a week because life in Dubai refuses to slow down, the team calibrates for that cadence rather than pretending you’ll suddenly become someone else. If your sleep improves after Ramadan and your scalp calms down, they adjust again. Thousands of possible combinations sit on the bench, not as a slogan, but as a practical way to stay rooted in data while adapting to human behavior.
The conversation inevitably turns to ingredients, where myths abound. Skjøth is blunt: “Well, natural ingredients on their own don’t work very well. We only use natural ingredients, but without the science and technology behind them, they aren’t particularly effective.” He describes the process with precision: “We make an extraction from Burdock root and have identified more than 200 constituents in our particular Burdock Root extraction. Our research has led us to understand that we only need seven of those constituents. We developed ways to derive those seven ingredients from burdock root, a process that takes about a year. From there, it undergoes several more steps before finally becoming an ingredient in a client’s product.” In short, the point is not a romantic ingredient list—it’s a targeted composition that works predictably.
Dubai became part of the story because clients from the UAE were already flying to Copenhagen for follow-ups. After several visits, Skjøth relocated in 2011 and opened the clinic the following year. “The cult following didn’t come because we sought it out,” he says. “We currently treat dozens of royal family members from across the Middle East.” Word spread quietly but effectively—through families, friends, and private conversations—which is often how real trust forms in the region.
Hair health in the GCC shows recognizable patterns. Long hours in cold AC dry out the scalp, weekend sun and outdoor sports shift the microbial balance, and irregular sleep throws hormones off rhythm. Mineral or chemical-rich water is often blamed, but the truth is more nuanced: it doesn’t cause baldness, but it can create buildup, dullness, and irritation that lead to breakage. The solution lies in filters for some, smarter cleansing for others, and consistent conditioning that smooths the strand without suffocating the root.
Then there’s the debate about washing frequency. “Many people believe that washing less is better, but in fact, washing more often can be beneficial—as long as it’s done with the right shampoo,” he explains. “When we recommend a shampoo, it’s always from our range, designed to work as a treatment rather than just a wash. When we hydrate the hair, it doesn’t leave a layer on top—the strand opens, absorbs the moisture inside, and everything else is rinsed away. There’s no silicone, no color, and no fragrance. It’s hydration built directly into the strand.”
For Skjøth, the UAE offers something unique: a culture ready to act on this information. “What matters to me is that there’s not only a need, but also a genuine desire to make changes,” he says. “What I find remarkable about the UAE is the real desire people have to make those changes, because they see it as an important part of their quality of life. It’s far from just vanity. It’s really about quality of life.”
That emotional dimension is impossible to ignore. “It can feel like a brutal attack on how you see yourself, and on the image you’ve always carried in your mind of who you are,” he admits. “Then you see a photo from a party or a vacation and suddenly think, ‘That’s not me.’ Or if a man sees a photo of himself taken from a certain angle and realizes, ‘My gosh, I’m thinning at the crown and I never noticed,’ that can feel like a brutal attack on his sense of self.”
Then there’s the case of American television host and actress Ricki Lake. After a decades-long public fight with hair thinning, she shaved her head on New Year’s Day 2020, calling her loss “debilitating, embarrassing, painful, scary, depressing, lonely.” Nothing worked—until she came to Hårklinikken. After just three months, Lake reported feeling “healthier than I’ve been in 30 years.”
For readers looking for immediate takeaways, the scientist offers a simple entry point. “Proper cleansing that reaches deep into the follicle, creating a balanced scalp microbiome, combined with hydration inside the strand, makes a huge difference. That, at the very least, can be a good place to start.” Alongside that, he suggests cutting back on heavy scalp oils, getting enough protein, prioritizing sleep, rinsing after workouts, and fully drying hair before covering it with hijab, caps, or hoods.
Supplements round out the system, though Skjøth presents them as support, not shortcuts. “The supplements are designed to target eight functional areas of the body to improve overall health,” he explains. “The key is that it’s a vegan supplement in plant-based capsules, using ingredients that suppress the factors harming your overall health—and by extension, your hair and scalp health. There are also elements in the supplement that upregulate every aspect of hair growth and scalp function.”
The impact, in his view, is as much psychological as it is physical. “When we transform not only their hair, but also their entire perception of themselves, bringing them back to who they truly are—that’s a life-changing moment for them, and also for us.”
Hair health rarely changes overnight, yet it changes steadily when conditions remain supportive and consistent. The Gulf’s climate will keep shifting between outdoor heat and indoor chill, workweeks will stay busy, and family calendars won’t clear—but small, realistic habits make a lasting difference. Keep the scalp clean with treatment-grade shampoos, hydrate strands from within rather than coating them from outside, and maintain routines that fit into your actual life, not your imagined one. Skjøth’s approach feels measured, pragmatic, and patient—and perhaps that is why, as more people in the region have discovered, the results tend to speak for themselves.
