Hello beautiful ladies,

Hope you all are well. Today, I will be talking about a hair related problem which is called poliosis, or white hair patches. Now imagine, if one day suddenly you see yourself in the mirror with a patch of white hair on your head or any part of your body, it will not be a pleasant incident for you. We all love our hair, our skin, we love ourselves. So white hair patch is obviously one of the worst things that can happen to us any day. This is such a disease that actually can happen to anyone irrespective of their age. I think it’s better to prepare yourself for anything bad so that you can get prevent it or treat it at the earliest. Also, white hair patch is such a thing that can lower anyone’s self-esteem. Basically, this is a small localized patch of white hair that grows in between the regular hair. Usually, it takes place in the streak or forelock at the front of the hairline but sometimes it might occur on any part of the body. As we all know, melanin is the ingredient in our skin, which helps to maintain the natural colour of skin and hair. Depigmentation or discolouration is caused by the lack of melanin in that particular area. That is what causes poliosis as well. In this case, the melanin pigment, which is present at the hair follicle of that particular area, decreases noticeably. So, hair of that area becomes white in colour making it looks very odd, undoubtedly.

Causes of White Hair Patches:

There are various causes of this disease. Some of them are as follows:

1. Genetic Disorders:

Sometimes, if parents have some genetic issues, that can be inherited in a newborn baby. So, a newly born baby can also be the victim of poliosis. Some of the medical terms for it are– Piebaldism, Waardenburg’s syndrome, Marfan’s syndrome, Tuberous sclerosis, Vogt- Koyanagi- Harada (VKH) syndrome, Giant congenital nevus, Alezzandrini syndrome.

2. Autoimmune Diseases:

These are as follows: vitiligo, hypogonadism, hypopituitarism, skin cancer, sarcoidosis, thyroid diseases, GAPO syndrome, neurofibromatosis, idiopathic uveitis, intradermal nevus, post- inflammatory dermatoses, pernicious anaemia, halo nevus and post-trauma.

3. Other Reasons:

Alopecia areata, herpes zoster(shingles), melanoma, halo moles, hyperpigmentation of eyes, radiotherapy, melanisationdefets, Rubinstein –Taybi syndrome, leprosy, albino, dermatitis, injuries, ageing etc. Also, taking drugs on a regular basis can cause poliosis.

Types of Poliosis:

There are two types of poliosis. One is genetic and one is acquired.

1.Genetic:
As we can see above, this is caused by a genetic disorder or various genetic issues of the parents which can be inherited in the newborn.

2. Acquired:
If not congenital or genetic, then poliosis can be caused by the after-effects of various medical conditions, which are seen in the later phase of life.

Diagnosis:

As Poliosis can be caused by various reasons, a patient of this disease should be gone through a thorough medical check-up of the full body. A full history of patient’s family’s’ medical condition should also be investigated. These following points are considered for the checkup.
1. Blood test
2. Thorough physical check up
3. Patient’s nutritional survey
4. Endocrinal survey
5. Neurological causes
6. Analysis of a skin samp

Treatment:

The most important point is, what the actual cause of poliosis, is yet to be discovered. Some people say that psychological trauma, physical shocks or other stressful experiences cause this disease. They believe this can happen overnight. Anyway, you can do some things. Such as:
1. Do not take too many antibiotics.
2. Try to eliminate the causative factors which are present to grow white hair patches.
3. One can use UV-B lamp ray repeatedly. This is very helpful.
4. Apply Ammi majus medication in lotion or ointment form.
5. Also, avoid those situations which can be responsible for white hair growth.
6. One can do epidermal grafting on the depigmented skin beneath the white hair patch.
7. The simplest and most beneficial procedure is to dye your hair.

So, this was all about the white hair patch or poliosis. Hope this article will be helpful for you. Have a good day ahead.

Source: makeupandbeauty.com