Anyone minimizing the harm of Chris Rock's "joke" needs to learn more about alopecia, [View all]

[pnwmom]

and the pain it has brought to many. And one of the immune-related, permanent forms is suffered by 15% of Black women -- far more than the alopecia areata most white people have heard about (which affects less than 1% of the US population.)

Rock knew what he was doing. There was no reason to suggest Jada should play GI Jane except that she's shaving her head now, in response to her alopecia. Will didn't immediate react, probably because the thought of his wife playing a soldier struck him as funny. And then he realized Rock was making light of her baldness -- and he lost it.

Here's a girl who killed herself a week ago, whose mother said was being bullied for her alopecia.

https://www.wndu.com/2022/03/17/candlelight-vigil-12-year-old-north-side-middle-school-student/

Family members said Rio Allred died by suicide earlier this week after they claim she was bullied at school.

SNIP

Ball claims her daughter was bullied multiple times.

“She had alopecia, which is an autoimmune disease that made her body attack her hair follicles and made her hair fall out...She started this school year with a wig, a beautiful wig. Within the first few weeks kids were ripping it off of her head. In front of the whole class...Would smack her upside the head in the hallway,” Ball said.

Ball said she addressed the bullying with a social worker and counselor.

“And I asked them specifically ‘please get in touch with the parents’. I don’t know if that happened. There was no follow up and three weeks later here we are,” Ball said.

Link to tweet

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/well/live/alopecia-hair-loss.html

A type of hair loss common in the Black community is traction alopecia, which occurs when hair has been pulled tight for too long.

Other people lose hair because their immune system starts attacking their hair follicles in what is known as autoimmune alopecia. Autoimmune forms of alopecia can be caused by discoid lupus erythematosus, which can lead to sores and scarring on the face and scalp. Central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia is another immune-related condition that causes scalp scarring and permanent hair loss. C.C.C.A. almost exclusively arises among Black women between ages 30 and 55, and research suggests it may afflict as many as 15 percent of such women.

Another common form of autoimmune alopecia is alopecia areata. When people talk about alopecia, they are often referring to this type, which affects one in every 500 to 1,000 people in the United States. It’s unclear what kind of alopecia Pinkett Smith has, but her appearance suggests it is alopecia areata, said Dr. George Cotsarelis, a dermatologist at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.