Localized alopecia?

[MariaLG]

My 11-year old daughter was diagnosed with alopecia a few years ago and with the exception of the initial "outbreak" has not had any trouble with hair loss until about 9 months ago.  In that nine months she has lost only a small, dime-sized patch of hair on her head, but cyclically loses and regrows her eyebrows and eyelashes. She has had her thyroid checked and has, in the past, been seen by a dermatologist.  I am wondering whether it's "normal" in alopecia for the hair loss to be sporadic.  Her left eye and eyebrow seem to be affected more than the right.  Also, I can tell when she's going to lose lashes because her eyelid, where the base of her lashes meet lid, gets a little puffy.  Is this normal?  I understand that alopecia is a type of auto-immune disorder and that there is no treatment...I'm just looking for some advice as to whether we should be concerned that it's more than alopecia.  Obviously it's very troubling for her and for me.  Thank you!


This discussion is related to Loss of eyelashes.

[Michellesboxers]

About 9 months ago I noticed that my 13 year old son had lost quite a few eye lashes.  At first I was really angry at him and ended up taking him to talk to a professional as I would have sworn he was "pulling".  He denied it.  So, I went to a health food store and spoke to someone who recommended a product called Paragone.  She explained that micro organsims can become very active, especially during a full moon.  I tried him on this regiment for about 3 months and things cleared up a bit although his eyelashes have never been as full or as long as they were then.  I started him on the adult version about 6 weeks ago as I noticed that he was missing some lashes again.  I am just going to have to be vigilant.  I have to wake him up 1/2 hour before breakfast to take the "medicine" on an empty stomach and he seems to be way OK with that.  I didn't have anything to loose by going in this direction.  He loves bread which makes me think that he is getting too much yeast in his system so I am weaning him off that little by little by using products that don't contain as much yeast.  Good luck!

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

One possibility that is coming to my mind is of alopecia totalis. In this there is hairfall of scalp as well as eyebrow and eyelashes. The cause is stress or some autoimmune disease. There is no standard treatment of this disease but immunomodulatory agents such as imiquimod  are very helpful.
I suggest you to take a second opinion from an endocrinologist and get it evaluated.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[martikadragoon]

Hi,

Alopecia can affect a person sporadically and cause patches of hair loss. it does not always include head to toe hair loss although I've met a couple people who had that and they had no arm hair, no leg hair, no hair of any kind.

those are more severe cases. The reason that her eyelid gets puffy is the autoimmune system is attacking the hair follicles there which is causing mild swelling.

here's a site with more info on it,

http://skin.emedtv.com/skin/info-on-alopecia-areata.html

You might want to look into a couple camps for her that deal specifically with skin disorders like alopecia,

http://www.scalyskin.org/content.cfm?ContentID=154&ColumnID=36

this camp is mainly dedicated to people with various forms of Ichthyosis, but also invites others with things like alopecia and certain nevus (birthmark) disorders.

I went as a kid ( I have something called EHK or Epidermolytic Hyperkeratosis a more rare form of skin disorder 1:300,000) and it was AWESOME.
It's completely funded so there's no cost to you. :) they'll fly kids out there, have people at the airport designated to help with those under age 16, and she'll be met by someone at the arriving airport who will be there to gather the kids for the camp coming in.

I figured I'd mention this because summer is coming up and it's a great experience to have.

Contact me anytime if you have questions regarding the camp or other things.