One Mystery Solved

The exact cause of Alopecia Areata is still unknown and most lean toward heredity as a major factor. My family always had one question, "Where did she get Alopecia?" No one else exhibited hair loss and my older relatives could remember no distant figure with the condition.

An unsolved mystery until a casual conversation between my aunt and her cousin. My third cousin had just experienced complete hair loss and was diagnosed for the first time with Alopecia Areata. Unlike myself, who was diagnosed in childhood, my cousin experienced his first loss in his late twenties. His grandmother and my grandfather were siblings, and now for the first time I discovered that my autoimmune disease was truly hereditary.

The fact that my cousin and I are experiencing baldness at the same time is hard to believe. I wonder how my great-great-...relative, whoever he or she maybe, dealt with hair loss centuries ago.