Hair Follicle Miniaturization: Which hair loss disorders are associated with miniaturization?

Hair Follicle Miniaturization: A Feature of Many Hair Loss Disorders

If you examine the scalp of individuals who do not have a hair loss disorder you quickly note that most hairs are the same size. Not exactly the same size but within a fairly narrow range. A decrease in the diameter of hair shaft compared to the diameter that it once was is known as “miniaturization.” Hair follicle miniaturization is well known to be a part of so called “androgenetic alopecia” (commonly called male and female hair loss). However, many other scarring and non scarring hair loss conditions are associated with a reduction in shaft diameter.

Causes of miniaturization include triangular alopecia, discoid lupus, systemic lupus, alopecia areata, dissecting cellulitis, central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, traction alopecia, psoriasis, chemotherapy induced alopecia, psorasiform drug reactions, and secondary syphilis.