Alopecia Mucinosa

What is Alopecia Mucinosa?

Alopecia Mucinosa is a kind of scalp disorder also known as follicular mucinosis, which is the collection of Mucins around the hair follicles. Mucins look like strings of clear and whitish goo around the skin and are made from hyaluronic acid (an element surrounding the dermis layer below the skin). This condition causes slightly scaly bald patches and is usually found in the facial and neck areas.

The disease usually presents as slightly scaly bald patches in which the follicles are unusually prominent. Most common sites of involvement are the face, neck and scalp, but any part of the body may be affected.

This condition usually occurs in children and teenagers (Pinkus type) and in people older than 40 years. A secondary disorder is associated with benign and malignant skin disease.

Medical Symptoms

Early signs of this disease show grouped raised papules around the hair follicles. They are usually

red in color
patchy
are around 2 to 5 cm in diameter

A single lesion usually develops into multiple lesions after a few weeks or months. In the early stages, your hair might grow back if the condition subsides. In more severe cases, you might face with complete destruction of your hair follicles causing bald patch even if you manage to control the inflammation.

What Causes Alopecia Mucinosa?

No one knows for sure why this problem occurs, but it may have something to do with circulating immune complexes or response to your immune system. What researchers found is that the Mucins accumulate in hair follicles and sebaceous glands to create an inflammatory condition that paralyzes the ability of the affected follicles to produce hair.

Seeking Medical Treatment

There is no proven effective treatment for alopecia mucinosa. Usually children that gets this disease recover spontaneously after a short time. Due to the fact that this disease can be trigger by others, it's hard to find an effective treatment to this problem. However, your doctor might recommend some of these medications for you to reduce the symptoms.