Hi all.
My mother has been suffering from alopecia for a little while now. I first noticed it around 6 months ago and advised her to go to the doctor.

He said that it was the medication she was on (anti-anxiety) and sent her off home.

Well last week I noticed the alopecia had spread to the front left temple and just underneath the crown also. Previously it had always been 90% underneath the occipital bone.

I asked my mother to go back to her doctor, who now believes it may be dermatitis. I am at a loss as to how this could be dermatitis. The skin is not reddened, scabbed, open or itchy and my mother only has her hair washed in our salons. The hair loss itself is quite uniform in shape (not circular, but still a definite start and stop).

I wanted my mother to be referred to a trichologist but she has been referred to a dermatoligist.

Anyone here with any experience beyond mine who can advise me what to do?

Cheers.

Chris, first have your mother get a second opinion. There are creams that can help. Also if her scalp is tight, a nice scalp massage might help to stimulate those sebum glands (dry scalp can sometime dry up the folical) also, does she see a skin doc or a family doc? It's possible her problem could be hormonal, with some natural herbs she could start to re-grow the hair in the areas. Do you have Nioxin available? Addy http://www.nioxin.com/ I once worked with a lady that struggled with spots in her hair due to hormones, she was going thru the change of life and her hair became sparce and brittle. She started usin the nioxin line and in a few months her hair had grown back dramaticly, not completly but 100 times better than it had been. Do some research on this product if you are not already familliar with it....it may help.

Tell your mother I hope it gets better for her.

Cheers

Thanks for the reply Bushwhacker. It's been a while since I used Nioxin but I may buy some in especially if the problem persists.

The doc was just the regular general practioner and as I said, he told her it is dermatitis but I just cannot see how. She'll be seeing the dermatologist soon so hopefully he will confirm if my suspicions of it being alopecia are true.

My mums twin sister suffered alopecia a few years back. Perhaps there's a genetic thing going on there too?

I'll keep you updated.

P.S. What are the herbal remedies you mentioned?