Totally freaked bald spot please help

[thepurselady]

Dear Doctor,

I have had sking burning on my scalp and diffuse hair loss. I just got back from the Clev clinic and was told this was TE and not AGA. I was so thankful and ready to get on with my life- My hair loss is actually cominmg back.

I have had a sebacious cyst on my back head for about ayear.  The past 3 weeks the cyst got inflamed, red swollen and oozed.  Was about the size of a grape.  I had popped it.  I also had been picking at the scap.  I looked at it a few days back and the cyst has calmed down and now very small.  But yesterday I looked an noticed there is a 1/4 patch of pretty much no hair over the cyst, maybe a tad spread past the cyst.  UNfortunatly this must not have been apparent when I was in cleveland - its pretty much bald with a stray hair or two in the patch

I have never had bald patches with my scalp burning just diffuse loss which is coming back, but now this.  I was finally ready to accept that I am ok now to find a bald spot.

I read all about Alopecia areata and im scared to death.  But I do find it ironic that this 1/4 inch round bald spot apeared directly above the cyst that has been manipulated and picked at.

I have had zits on myhead before that I pop but they never went bald.   I have not one single bald spot anywhere else.

Do you think it is frm the cyst that caused it to loose the hair?  Its the weekend, im freaked out and have nowhere to go- I have never been so scared in my life please give me your honest opinion.

If you feel it cyst related can you help explain in laymans terms why it would occur?  Below is a photo and it has not grown to my knowledge over the past 24 hours

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/FENDIWOMAN/sspot.jpg[/IMG]

Thank you greatly

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

The picture looks like what your story sounds like--alopecia areata.  This is common and hardly anything to be "scared to death" about.  If you saw pictures of people going totally bald (alopecia totalis), that's much rarer and the common variety (1 bald spot, like yours) does not generally progress to the total variety.  On the contrary, it grows back in 3-6 months.

I doubt that pressure from the cyst.  I can't explain the apparent coincidence of the appearance of alopecia areata in such close proximity to an infected cyst and to telogen effluvium, so you'll need to see a doctor for a firm diagnosis.  But I see no reason for you to be freaked out.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff

[thepurselady]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v251/FENDIWOMAN/sspot.jpg

Sorry here is a more direct html link

[thepurselady]

The cyst became totally inflamed 3 weeks ago, so much that I could not touch it.  Then my husband and I squooze the **** out of it and i have been picking at it very much, so you do not think the trauma of picking and squeezing and the fact that the cyst was infected would cause the hair over it to fall out?

I am freaked out I have seen people loose dozens of patches quickly.

[runnergirl00]

I have no idea what could be causing your issue - but I just wanted to let you know that AA (Alopecia Areata) is nothing to be afraid of in the event you have that. I started out with AA 2 years ago (junior year of college) and it has since developed into AU (Alopecia Universalis) and so I have NO hair (not even nose hair or eyelashes). As a young-adult and female, I am often self-conscious around my peers and co-workers, but there's not a whole lot you can do to fix it. I just try to find positive things about it - I haven't had to shave my legs in ... two years (YAY) and I never have to deal with drying/straightening/curling/etc. my hair in the mornings (so getting ready in the morning is much less of an ordeal!) and I save some money on not having to buy hair styling products, (or shampoo/condition for that matter), hair appliances, hair cuts, or hair dyeing. Anyway. If it's just a small spot the rest of your hair will probably cover it and no one will even know. I'm sorry I can't give you any advice medically but just keep your head up and think positive. At least it's just a little hairloss and not something worse!

[thepurselady]

I read on a few other forums that some have also lost patches of hair over top of an infected cyst.  I called my doctor and they said its not uncommon for hair to drop out of a recently infected site because the hairs can enter the resting phase quickly or the pressure of the swollen infection can push out the follicles.  The mising spot was the exact same size and shape of the infected cyst.  Im hoping upon hope that my doctor was right and that this missing patch was due to the inflamation (inflammation) and infection of the cyst.