A girl with loose anagen hair syndrome and uncombable, spun-glass hair

Abstract

A 4-year-old girl presented with a 2-year history of scalp hair that had an odd texture, was difficult to manage, tended to "stick out" from the scalp, and was irregular in length. A hair pull test revealed that hairs could be easily and painlessly extracted. Light microscopic examination of the hair demonstrated anagen hairs with a ruffled cuticle and distorted bulb as well as an unusual undulation and grooving of the shafts. These findings are consistent with both loose anagen and uncombable hair syndromes. The occurrence of both syndromes in the same patient seems unlikely, and we propose that our patient has loose anagen hair syndrome with features resembling uncombable hair syndrome.