Signs and Symptoms
Typical first symptoms of alopecia areata are small bald patches. The underlying skin is unscarred and looks superficially normal. These patches can take many shapes, but are most usually round or oval. Alopecia areata most often affects the scalp and beard, but may occur on any hair-bearing part of the body. Different skin areas can exhibit hair loss and regrowth at the same time. The disease may also go into remission for a time, or permanently. Common in children.
The area of hair loss may tingle or be painful.
The hair tends to fall out over a short period of time, with the loss commonly occurring more on one side of the scalp than the other.
Exclamation point hairs are often present. Exclamation point hairs are hairs that become narrower along the length of the strand closer to the base, producing a characteristic "exclamation point" appearance.
In the case of healthy hair, if you were to try to pull some out, at most a few should come out, and ripped hair should not be distributed evenly across the tugged portion of the scalp. In cases of alopecia areata hair will tend to pull out more easily along the edge of the patch where the follicles are already being attacked by the body's immune system than away from the patch where they are still healthy.
Nails may have pitting or trachyonychia.
Read more about this topic: Alopecia Areata
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