International Women with Alopecia Month – July 2025

History of International Women with Alopecia Month

Alopecia, caused by an autoimmune disruption, is the most common type of hair loss. The most common types of alopecia are alopecia areata (spot baldness) and androgenetic alopecia (female pattern hair loss), and the condition has no cure. Possible risk factors include psychological stress and illness, and the cause of alopecia seems to be a breach in the immune privilege of hair follicles. This means that the body fails to recognize its own cells and subsequently destroys hair follicles.

The term ‘alopecia’ was first used in Ancient Greece, from the word ‘alopex,’ which meant fox. The first-ever mention of alopecia area was in the 1664 book “Medicina Practica,” written by the Polish John Jonston. ‘Alopecia areata’ was first used by French physician Sauvages de Lacroix in his 1763 book “Nosologia Methodica.” The first-ever clinical description of alopecia areata comes from “A Practical Synopsis Of Cutaneous Disease” in 1817. Thomas Bateman, the author, described the condition as “bald patches, mainly circular with hair regrowth that is softer and lighter in color than before.” He named it ‘porrigo decalvans,’ meaning “depilating scalp disease.”

It took many years for humans to understand the cause of alopecia areata. Among the existing theories, 19th-century beliefs attributed the condition to a parasite while questions about it being ‘neurotropic’ abounded. Recent studies have pinpointed an autoimmune error.