Jason Godfrey recently shared in an article that he was struck with a sudden bald spot in the beginning of last year. Originally he was afraid it may be an early symptom of male pattern baldness, however on closer inspection he found that the bald spot, which was on the nape of his neck, was about the size of coin. This didn’t match the early progression signs of male pattern baldness, which usually presents with hair thinning on the crown and receding hairline around the temples.
Diagnosing the alopecia
After some difficult online research, Godfrey finally understood his random bald spot was an early symptom of alopecia areata. This is an autoimmune disorder where the patient’s immune system targets hair follicles as intruders and kills them, causing hair to fall out in clumps.
Alopecia can sometimes be genetically inherited; otherwise it can be triggered and worsened by stress. In ten percent of cases, the hair loss is permanent and can spread over the entire scalp and sometimes even around the body. In order to avoid further balding, Godfrey attempted to cut out stress in his life and hoped the hair would grow back over the patch eventually.
Months later with no progress, Godfrey finally consulted a doctor who prescribed him a steroid cream to massage into the bald patch as often as he could. Initially the bald spot appeared to be getting bigger and more noticeable causing colleagues and friends to become concerned and point it out further. Nevertheless, Godfrey continued to use the steroid cream and finally one year after initially noticing the alopecia his hair has grown back and credits the results to the steroid cream.
Using steroid creams to treat alopecia areata
Although steroid creams have been proven to be successful in treating certain forms of alopecia, there is not enough conclusive evidence behind their usage in curing alopecia. The various forms of alopecia are still not completely medically understood and there is always the possibility that Godfrey’s hair regrowth was a coincidence or a reflection of some other lifestyle change.
Alopecia is known to be recurring condition, so although it may become silent, it can always come back in which case a hair loss solution such as a scalp micro pigmentation (SMP) procedure would be preferable to conceal the bald patch.
