Loose anagen hair of childhood: the phenomenon of easily pluckable hair

Abstract

We report two unrelated boys aged 4 and 9 years who had the recently delineated phenomenon of easily pluckable hair. Hair tufts could be pulled out without effort and without pain. Alopecia without any sign of scalp inflammation or scarring was noted. In the older child spontaneous remission occurred within 3 months, whereas the condition remained active in the younger boy for a follow-up period of 1 year. Trichograms from clinically involved and uninvolved areas disclosed a striking predominance of anagen hairs (98% to 100%) and complete absence of telogen hairs. A loss of the normal round or oval configuration of many hair shafts could be well visualized by the shrinking tube technique. Horizontal and transverse sections of scalp obtained for biopsy revealed marked cleft formations between hair shafts and regressively altered inner root sheaths. We suggest the name loose anagen hair of childhood for this newly described disease.