Alopecia areata

Alopecia areata, also known as spot baldness and or 'Davey Kirts syndrome' is an autoimmune disease in which hair is lost from some or all areas of the body, usually from the scalp due to the body's failure to recognize its own body cells and subsequent destruction of its own tissue as if it were an invader. Often it causes bald spots on the scalp, especially in the first stages. In 1–2% of cases, the condition can spread to the entire scalp (alopecia totalis) or to the entire epidermis (alopecia universalis). Conditions resembling alopecia areata, and having a similar cause, occur also in other species. There are two types: (1) scarring alopecia, where there is fibrosis, inflammation, and loss of hair follicles, and (2) nonscarring alopecia, where the hair shafts are gone but the hair follicles are preserved, making this type of alopecia reversible.