September is Alopecia Awareness Month
Alopecia Areata is a disease that occurs when hair follicles are attacked by the immune system, causing hair loss anywhere on the body but commonly on the scalp. Alopecia is a common disease in the United States. There is no set age demographic as it can affect individuals at different points in their lives.
Danita Peoples, dermatologist, and associate professor at Wayne State University, in an article for The Conversation, writes, “Anyone can get alopecia. Alopecia areata can show up at any age, from children to adults, and both men and women. But it’s more likely to affect African Americans than white or Asian Americans. About 1 million people in the U.S. have alopecia areata.”
In 1981, the National Alopecia Areata Foundation was established to both educate the community at large about alopecia areata and empower those living with alopecia areata. The foundation serves as a resource hub with articles and tips and tricks for treating and living with the disease. The organization recently responded earlier this year when the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the medication Olumiant as an alopecia approved treatment.
In a press release from NAAF, Nicole Friedland, President and CEO, said, “this is the dawn of a new era… for the first time, alopecia areata patients have the option of an approved treatment that has undergone rigorous testing in clinical trials. We anticipate more treatments to come, bringing additional choices to our community.”
It is no secret that awareness surrounding alopecia areata was elevated through the unfortunate incident at the 2022 Academy Awards in which actor Will Smith slapped fellow actor Chris Rock for making a joke about Smith’s wife, actress/producer Jada Pinkett-Smith. Pinkett-Smith has been open about her bout with alopecia areata, revealing it publicly in a 2018 episode of her Emmy Award winning web series Red Table Talk.
In all the controversy surrounding this incident was a lack of knowledge and lack of sensitivity surrounding alopecia areata. Pinkett-Smith later focused a 2022 episode of Red Table Talk on the disease as well. Since both the incident and the episode, awareness for alopecia areata has increased.
Claretta Bellamy, in her 2022 article for NBC News, “How Jada Pinkett Smith is uplifting Black women with alopecia”, writes, “Pinkett Smith is among the notable women of color who have broken their silence about hair loss, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who revealed she had alopecia in 2020. Hearing celebrities share their stories inspires those like 43-year-old Mabel Peralta, who was diagnosed in 2014 with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes unpredictable patchy baldness on different areas of the body.”
For more information on how to get involved with the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, visit www.naaf.org
