Patches baldness or otherwise known as alopecia is a general term referring to hair loss which usually affects both men and women during their middle aged life. However alopecia has many different types each with a different cause and effect on the body. There are mainly 3 types of alopecia each ranging in level of severity, alopecia areata, alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis.
Alopecia starts mainly at the front and top of the head as in common male pattern baldness. It may be patchy as in a condition called Alopecia Areata or it can involve the entire head as in Alopecia Totalis. In the most serious form, it can even involve the entire body as in Alopecia Universalis.
Medical studies have concluded that these three types of alopecia are a result of an abnormality within the immune system where the immune system attacks certain tissues in the body. In the case of alopecia affected hair follicles are mistakenly attacked by a person's own immune system (white blood cells), resulting in the halt of the hair growth stage. As a result, the affected follicles become very small, drastically slow down in production, and grow no hair visible above the surface for months or years. The scalp is the most commonly affected area, but the beard or any hair-bearing site can be affected alone or together with the scalp. |
