Alopecia Areata

Have you ever noticed small bald patches suddenly appearing on your scalp? It’s alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease. This condition can be mild or even severe, but it’s not harmful to your health. At Assure Clinic, our top doctors can assist you with treating this condition with the proper treatment.

Alopecia Areata: Understanding This Autoimmune Hair Loss Condition

Alopecia areata is a condition that happens when your immune system attacks your hair follicles, resulting in hair loss. Hair follicles are the primary structures that form hair. Even though hair fall can happen anywhere in the body, this condition generally affects the head and face. You will notice hair falling in round, small patches, the size of a quarter. 

However, in some cases, this hair fall can also be severe. Despite this, people with this condition are healthy with no other significant symptoms. Moreover, the course of this condition also varies from person to person; some face it for their entire life, while others may experience one episode of hair loss.

What Causes Alopecia Areata and Why It Happens

In this condition, your immune system mistakenly attacks its own hair follicles, which leads to inflammation. However, researchers do not entirely understand alopecia areata causes and the reasons why the immune system actually attacks the hair follicles. But it is believed that genetic and non-genetic (environmental) elements play a vital role in developing this condition.

Early Signs of Alopecia Areata You Shouldn’t Ignore

Alopecia areata effects typically begin with hair loss when your immune system starts to attack hair follicles, leading to hair fall. It generally begins with a sudden loss of hair in a coin-sized area with an oval or round shape. In most cases, broken hair that is narrower at the base, which may look like exclamation marks, is often seen in the surrounding areas. 

Your skin will still look normal and not inflamed. However, some people may experience a little discomfort in that area, particularly before the hair begins to fall. In addition, your nails may also show changes with pits and ridges, especially if you are experiencing extensive hair loss.

Alopecia Areata Effects on Hair, Confidence, and Daily Life

This condition leads to hair fall in patches, but the most significant impact is often social and psychological. This can lead to avoidance of social and physical activities, daily challenges, and problems in personal and professional relationships. That is why it is necessary for alopecia areata self care to cope with the following effects:

Effects on Hair:

  • Unpredictable hair loss – This condition results in non-scarring hair loss with a pattern and amount of hair loss that are very unpredictable.
  • Spontaneous regrowth – You may experience spontaneous regrowth, while others endure chronic and relapsing hair loss.

Effects on Confidence:

  • Lessened self-esteem – Hair is associated with healthy living, identity, and beauty, and a hair decline may result in guilt, shame, and diminished self-worth.
  • Emotional distress – You can even feel depressed, anxious, helpless, and embarrassed.
  • Body image issues – Hair loss is bad enough to be visible and unpredictable, which is devastating to some.

Effects on Daily Life:

  • Social withdrawal – Some individuals shun family events, social events, and interactions with peers.
  • Activity avoidance – Physical activities can also be avoided when the person is fearful of hair loss or because of the unpleasant experience of sweat and sunburns.
  • Relationship issues- Hair loss, in some cases, affects personal and professional relationships.
  • Heightened stress – This erratic condition and emotional drainage can lead to increased stress, which in turn triggers even more hair loss.

Alopecia Areata Causes in Females vs Males – Is There a Difference?

There are no different alopecia areata causes in females and males, which is caused by the immune system attacking the follicles. In both, whether alopecia areata causes in males and females, it will lead to patchy and diffuse hair loss, typically confined to a small area. You may experience hair loss all at once, or the area may expand gradually, leading to increased hair fall.  

Also, remember, this condition is not the same as male pattern hair loss, which is characterized by a receding hairline and subsequent hair thinning in men. Similarly, it is not female pattern hair loss in females, which is a gradual thinning of hair covering a large area.

How Alopecia Areata Hair Loss and Hair Thinning Progress Over Time

Signs of alopecia areata start with one or more smooth, oval, or round patches of non-scarring and sudden hair loss on the scalp. This later progresses to a larger or complete scalp hair loss, known as alopecia totalis or alopecia universalis, which is a total body hair loss. Here is how it progresses:

  • Sudden onset – It usually starts with a sudden appearance of a hair loss patch/patches.
  • Expanding patches – These patches may or may not grow larger or, at times, even multiply and merge into one.
  • Regrowth and new patches – Your hair may start to regrow in one patch, whereas new hair fall patches may appear somewhere else.
  • Progression to severe forms – In some cases, it may lead to alopecia totalis or alopecia universalis.
  • Unpredictable nature – The timing, pattern, and extent of this hair loss and regrowth are very unpredictable.

Alopecia Areata Specialists: When to Seek Expert Help

You should start looking for alopecia areata treatment near me as soon as you notice hair loss. While you start your treatment, you must also remember to contact the specialist if you experience:

  • Any new symptoms besides the normal hair fall.
  • If symptoms do not improve even after treatment, consult a healthcare professional.
  • If the affected area appears more infected, it may exhibit symptoms such as purple, red, white, or gray skin, accompanied by swelling and irritation.

Why Patients Trust Assure Clinic for Alopecia Areata Treatment

In the treatment of alopecia areata, patients refer to Assure Clinic due to our competent staff, personalized and tailor-made treatment plans, advanced technology, in-depth consultations, and patient-centric care focused on restoring confidence. To address your personal needs and provide favorable results, we offer both natural solutions for alopecia areata and surgical options, including UFME and DSHI treatment, along with ongoing support. 

In these treatments, our experts extract individual hair follicles and graft them to the area where there is hair loss. The only difference between these two treatments is the process by which they are conducted.

Your Hair Recovery Journey with Assure: From Consultation to Confidence

What role do alopecia areata specialists play at Assure Clinic in the hair restoration process? We have a team of experts who will perform the following:

Step 1: Complete Assessment and Diagnosis

Our doctors will start with an in-depth analysis to evaluate your hair health, differentiate between alopecia areata hair thinning, hair fall, and permanent hair loss, and identify its stage. This is a complicated diagnosis that requires such a detailed analysis to develop a personal treatment plan.

Step 2: Hairline Design and Customized Planning

In case a hair transplant is the best alternative, we will come up with the pattern of your hairline that is based on your features, facial proportions, and natural hair growth.

Step 3: Advanced Hair Transplant Surgery

It can be either UFME or DSHI, and we ensure minimal graft wastage, utmost accuracy, and optimal density.

Step 4: Long-Term Follow-Up

Our aftercare is the best as we provide regular follow-ups and specialist instructions to ensure a quick healing process and higher results.

FAQ's

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1. What are the main causes of alopecia areata?

Alopecia areata women and men take place when the immune system of the body attacks the hair follicles by mistake, causing the fall of hair in patches.

The early signs of alopecia areata hair loss include circular patches of baldness that are smooth and sudden and usually occur on the head of the scalp and sometimes on other body parts, such as eyebrows, beard, and eyelashes.

Yes, most often the hair grows back after this condition, though alopecia areata hair regrowth is very unpredictable, and there may be hair fall again.

Although there is no specific cure, natural remedies for alopecia areata include scalp massages with essential oils like lavender or rosemary, a diet rich in minerals and vitamins, and stress reduction.

You should consult a specialist for alopecia areata solution when you start to notice extensive or sudden hair loss, bald patches, or persistent hair thinning, especially when accompanied by psychological distress and nail changes.

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