News Section | Children's Health
Kids with tight braids, buns and ponytails risk losing hair
Aug 24 : You really shouldn’t braid your hair too tight, or scrape it back in a ponytail, for a new research has found that doing so may put you at a risk of permanent hair loss.
Researchers at the University of Cape Town, who analysed nearly 2,000 adults and children in South Africa, carried out the study, which appears in the British Journal of Dermatology.
The team found that hairstyles such as corn rows once sported by David Beckham, or braids and those that require chemical straighteners, weaves or hair extensions can damage hair and cause bald patches over time.
Even the tight bun styles favoured by ballet dancers is not good either your hair, or the scalp.
The researchers, in their study, found that one in seven schoolgirls and a third of women were suffering from “traction alopecia”, hair loss thought to be caused by excessive and prolonged pulling of the hair, and that one in ten African men have a skin disorder known as “acne keloidalis nuchae”, which can cause pimples, scarring and hair loss at the back of the head.
Hair loss was particularly common in kids whose hair had been chemically “relaxed” or straightened to form a ponytail, with one in five kids having traction alopecia.
“Traction alopecia is common in women and girls, particularly when relaxed hair has braids, extensions or weaves attached. This can cause unsightly hair loss,” Timesonline quoted Dr Nonhlanhla Khumalo, one of the authors, as saying.
“AKN [acne keloidalis nuchae] appears more common in men who frequently cut their hair, and is linked to haircut-associated symptoms, such as pimples, crusts and bleeding. To achieve the shortest possible haircut, electric shavers are often dug into the scalp.
“The possible risk for blood-borne disease transmission, such as viral hepatitis and HIV, associated with such haircuts needs to be quantified and nonmechanical methods of cutting hair may be safer.”
The study also found that a further 7 per cent of women over the age of 50 had central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia – permanent hair loss that spreads from the centre of the scalp. (ANI)
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