Alopecia Areata

Alopecia areata is an auto-immune condition in which your body’s immune system attacks its own hair follicles causing hair loss. This can occur even in children and teenagers. One in five people is diagnosed with alopecia areata.

Types of Alopecia Areata:
1. Alopecia areata: Patchy hair loss in circular or oval shape can be seen
2. Alopecia Totalis: Complete hair loss on the scalp is seen
3. Alopecia Universalis: Hair loss all over the body- scalp, beard, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc. occurs. It can be seen rarely.

Symptoms

- Small circular patches on the scalp, face, or other parts of the body
- Mild itching or sensitivity in the bald areas
- Exclamation hair: Hair around bald patches becomes thinner as they go down

Causes

The cause of alopecia areata is an auto-immune disorder. The body’s immune system abruptly targets the hair follicles making them shrink. Such miniaturized hair follicles fail to produce healthy hair thus causing hair loss in patches.
Alopecia areata is often considered a genetic disease that can be inherited especially people less than the age of 30 diagnosed with alopecia areata have genetics to blame.