Alopecia Areafa

Alopecia areata is an affection characterized by circumscribed patches of baldness on the scalp or other hairy parts of the body.

It usually commences with a single spot, rarely noticed until it has attained a diameter of perhaps the third of an inch. This spot gradually increases in size, and others make their appearance to the number, in some instances, of a dozen or more. As the several spots increase in size, they encroach on each other until they finally coalesce and form patches of considerable size, and if unchecked may denude the entire scalp.

The spots themselves are absolutely deprived of hair, the short stubble met with in tricophytosis being absent. As a rule, the normal hue of the skin is preserved, but occasionally we meet with cases in which a slight congestion is apparent. Sometimes the reverse is the case, and the affected portions appear to have a lessened blood-supply.


Although most frequently met with on the scalp, and usually confined to this region, the disease may invade the beard and eyebrows, axillary and pubic hairs, and, in fact, cases have been observed in which apparently every hair of the body has fallen.


The cause and progress of the affection vary. In some cases they proceed by gradual steps to entire denudation of the scalp, while in others spontaneous recovery and re-growth of the hair may be observed. The new hair that comes in, either spontaneously or as the result of treatment, is usually fine and silky, and very much lighter in color than the surrounding healthy hair, and may even be entirely colorless. This early growth is not very viable, and the hairs are gradually supplanted by others stronger and more normal in appearance, until finally the formerly bald patch is to be in no way distinguishable from the surrounding hair.