Alopecia Areata

Apparently, Tyler has Alopecia. The boys were all needing haircuts so when I woke up early one busy Saturday morning, I thought I could quickly get them all done before starting our day. The boys were still sleeping so I woke them up one at a time. Tyler was the last one. Sitting in the chair I went to start cutting and saw a HUGE bald patch of hair! Totally smooth! I started freaking out! I thought he had cut it down to the scalp, but looking closer, there was NO stubble. He said his cousins had first noticed it the night before, but he didn't think it was very big. He told me he had pulled on his hair in that spot because it felt like he had some gel stuck in it. But only a few hairs at a time had come out. I checked his pillow and bed, but found nothing. Since it's summer, he wears a hat a lot. But, I KNEW it had been fine the Sunday before when I had brushed the back of all the boys hair down. I would have noticed it! How could he loose THAT much hair in ONE week! And we had been at the pool several times that week, so I would have seen it then. He wore a hat the rest of the day, and we let him stay home from church the next day. But, Monday morning I made a Dr appt, and took him in.

The first day we discovered it.

After a haircut.
The Dr said it was Alopecia Areata, which means "unexplained hair-loss." There is no explanation how or why you get it. It is TOTALLY random. It is not contagious. Some people have one patch, some have several, others have it all over their head or their entire body. It can come and go. You can have an outbreak once, then never again. Some people have it as a teenager, then not again until they're 40 years old. Some people suffer with it constantly. There is no way to control it.

Alopecia is an auto-immune disease where your body mistakes your hair follicles for a foreign body and kills them off. Your hair follicle is like a cup under your skin where a strand of hair grows. If the follicle dies, the hair falls out and no hair can grow. Hair follicles can grow back, then your hair can grow back, but it takes time with the hair cycle. Your hair cycles between growing and dormant stages. Since every follicle can be in a different stage, you don't notice. Hair loss occurs because the hair follicles in a discreet area all enter the telogen or late catagen stage of hair growth. In the catagen stage the hair follicle stops growing and in the telogen stage it falls out. Normally hairs are going through these stages at random and the growing hairs on the rest of the head outnumber the hairs that fall out. In alopecia areata, something causes all the hairs in a certain area to enter the telogen or catagen stage at the same time. In most cases of Alopecia, the hair regrows completely within a year.

Tyler's Dr. prescribed him some steroid cream to help stimulate the hair growth. And he needs to keep the sun off it because it is very sensitive. The good news was, with a magnifying glass he could already see hair growth. It just takes time. When we came back for a follow up appt several weeks later you could already see the black dots of the hair follicles regrowing. He said it may take 6 months to a year. Until then, my 11-year old has a bald patch that looks like his Mom slipped and TOTALLY screwed up his haircut.


After 2 months, you can finally see some regrowth.

After a haircut, he asked if we could glue some hair over his spot. I put some on to show him how silly it would look.
On the positive side, it could be way worse! At least it is only one patch, and it is regrowing. Tyler has adjusted to it and really isn't concerned about it. He doesn't mind showing people or answering questions. It doesn't bother him. And the lucky kid gets permission to wear a hat in class at school (to protect it from the sun outside).