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Permalink Reply by gerald on May 21, 2008 at 2:59pm

On this website, there are beautiful bald alopecian women of all sorts of races and ethnicities.

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Permalink Reply by Diane on May 21, 2008 at 5:39pm

Gerald,
I do know that. There is also a lot of beautiful bald men.
My question is more to know if a pattern of ethnicity, in this autoimmune condition is known or if it has been studied.
Diane

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Permalink Reply by Carol on May 23, 2008 at 12:41pm

Alopecia knows no boundaries. It can affect anyone at anytime regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity. Apparently 1 in 5 people are genetically disposed to having alopecia and will usually see onset before the age of 30. Alopecia affects just under 2% of the population. Hope that helps!!! :)

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Permalink Reply by Jane on May 25, 2008 at 5:09pm

Alopecia itself is classified as a random disorder (affecting anyone, although chances of occurrence increases if one or more family members has the disease or if a person has other auto-immuno issues (i.e., eczema, psoriasis, allergies, respiratory, asthma, vitiligo and the like) but, possibly, one might infer that there are a disproportionate number of ethnic patients in the U.S. who don’t receive or have access to treatment or receive proper treatment treatment (whether kenalog/triamcinolone injections or duration of treatment available or anthralin or transplants in the case of those with sufficient donor hair) although I suspect that the new follicle regeneration (stem cell) therapies currently under research by Univ. of Pennsylvania will level the field, at least for those who can afford the therapy.

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Permalink Reply by kastababy on May 26, 2008 at 12:56pm

Yes -- from what I've seen and the research that I've done with my dermatologist, AA disproportionately affects people of African-American, Hispanic, and biracial heritage far more often than it affects Caucasians. Now, if you break it down by type, AT and AU tends to affect Caucasians more than any other ethnic group, while persistent patchy AA affects African-Americans, Hispanics, and biracial people more often. One interesting thing to note is that for people of Oriental descent, AA in any form is still extremely rare, though it does exist. It tends to affect women far more than men, and children more than adults.

One thing of note about AA in African-Americans in particular -- most African-Americans who have either traction alopecia or AA don't even know that they have it -- they attribute their hair loss to stress (read: worry patches) or they recognize that they have a family history of thinning hair, but since the African-American culture by and large consists of going to the beauty shop weekly and using all manner of weaves and wigs to create the latest urban fashion styles it generally is not seen as an area of big concern -- after all, why worry about WHY your hair is actually falling out when it makes it that much easier to get a quick weave in the style and color of your choice??

One other thing of note that might help you: AA also tends to occur more in families that have a significant history of OTHER autoimmune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and vitiligo. Most people with AA who never had a problem with their thyroid function prior to developing AA will develop some form of thyroid issue at some point in the future (at least in a good majority of the cases I've studied), and just from what I've seen on this site, quite a few alopecians have eczema or psoriasis of some sort in conjunction with the alopecia.

Of course, if you go to a NAAF conference, their Q&A panel will tell you all of this information anyway (and judging by the transcripts from past conferences, that's ALL they know -- this is information I've known since before I knew NAAF existed, which was 2 years ago) -- so hopefully this information will put you ahead of the curve and provide you with a path for more follow-up questioning with your doctors. I hope it helps!!!

P.S. Have you placed yourself on the National Alopecia Areata Registry yet???

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Permalink Reply by Diane on May 26, 2008 at 4:15pm

Hi Yokasta,

Thank you very much for your answer. My curiosity was brought up by looking at the people present on this site: Asians are very rare compared to others.... but then, without data, it could have been just my perception or an other bias.

Diane
PS: I've already known about the others immune diseases running in the family..... I'm a pharmacist by background and when I lost my hairs 6 years ago, I complusary read everything about transmission of this disease, its causes, its treatments, ect... Concerning the NAAF registry, I'll have to check.

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Permalink Reply by kastababy on May 27, 2008 at 8:41pm

Not entirely true -- they become just as prone when they enter into mixed relationships just like everyone else. There was an Aborigine girl I went to college with that developed alopecia while we were in college together -- I'm not sure if she has moved back to Australia or not, but she was the only one I knew at the time from Australia that had it.

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