A Case of Loose Anagen Hair

Seo, Soo Hong; Kim, Il Hwan; Song, Hea Jun; Oh, Chil Hwan

Abstract

An 34-year-old woman was referred to our outpatient clinic because of 3-year history of diffuse hair loss. According to her, the hair loss tatalled more than 300 hairs daily and she had not been given any systemic medication. There was no history of hair disease in the family except for her father with androgenetic alopecia. On clinical examination there was diffuse alopecia of the frontal and parietotemporal scalp. There were no signs of scalp inflammation or scarring and were no short or broken hairs. The condition did not affect the eyebrows or eyelashes. The nails and teeth were normal. The hair was dry and lusterless, and numerous hairs were easily and painlessly pulled out after exerting soft traction. Light microscopic examination of these hairs showed them to be in anagen with pigmented, twisted hair bulbs and no internal or external root sheaths. Ruffling of the cuticle was seen on a short part of the proximal hair shaft, the rest of the hair being normal in appearance. The incisional biopsy showed fragmented inner root sheath. We diagnosed her for loose anagen hair and educated her to treat her hair gently. She has shown no improvement for two month follow up and is lost after then.