Traction Alopecia

I see a lot of women walking around with no hair at their edges. It’s very common, but what I realize is that the hair is receding so much that I think many women have failed to notice that they are loosing their hair.


This brings me to the topic for today. Traction Alopecia. Traction alopecia seems to be common among black women often because of some of the styles we wear. For example many of us braid our hair and sometimes, it’s just too tight. Or we pull our hair back too tight to achieve a smooth look. Then there are the cornrows done too tightly as well. And children are also suffering hair loss at their edges as well. Plus when we add relaxers and hair dye this can also aggravate the whole situation.
So if you braid your hair often, you need to be careful and make sure that you are not loosing your hairline in the process.

Traction alopecia is reversible if diagnosed early, however if you do not do something about it early it may lead to permanent hair loss for you. Once you see that you are loosing your hair please see a dermatologist. Your dermatologist should be able to recommend some treatment.

On another note you can prevent traction alopecia by changing hairstyles to styles that are less strenuous on the hair line. When you wear braids consider telling the person braiding your hair not to pick at the little hairs in front of your hairline. Also change up your hairstyles. Do not braid your hair all the time or wear a weave all the time. Let your hair breathe once in a while. If you do wear lots of braids or cornrows then change the style for example do not insist on cornrowing your hair all back all the time. That is a lot of pressure on one side of the hair. Try other styles. This especially applies to children who are required to wear cornrows or braids to school. Do change up their hair styles and consider skipping the extensions once in a while. Extensions are sometimes heavy on children’s hair.


Oghomwen