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Everything You Need to Know About Scarring Alopecia

Scarring alopecia is a permanent form of hair loss “where the scalp gets inflamed and, over time, the inflammation causes damage to the hair follicles, ultimately leading to their destruction,” says Victoria Barbosa, MD, MPH, director of the hair loss program at the University of Chicago and immediate past president of the Skin of Color Society.
You won’t see actual scars, though. “‘Scarring,’ when used in the term ‘scarring alopecia,’ refers to the replacement of normal skin structures — for example, the hair follicle, the sebaceous gland, blood vessels, nerves — with fibrous tissue,” says Paradi Mirmirani, MD, a board-certified dermatologist at Kaiser Permanente in Vallejo, California. “This process is known as fibrosis.” Once a hair follicle is destroyed and replaced by scar tissue, it cannot regrow hair, leading to permanent hair loss.
Other types of scarring alopecia can be hereditary or autoimmune, says Barbosa.