Dr Bola Ogunbiyi, a Consultant Dermatologist at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State has said that the use of accessories as beads and wrong hair styles can cause hair loss in children.
Ogunbiyi in an interview with Nigerian Tribune explained that because beads are heavy, they pull out children’s hair from its root.
Ogunbiyi said “We are seeing cases of three-year-old girls with hair loss caused by hairstyle and practices due to increasing sophistication. You see mothers making a million braids on a three-year-old or you see them put on beads. When these beads are weighed, some are up to 300 grammes each. These pull the hair from its root.
“I had a mother who came to me; the girl was three years old and had Traction alopecia, a loss of hair that gradually occurs due to an external pulling force pulling at the roots of the hair strands. She claimed the little girl insisted on doing her hair. I showed her the picture of a person with Traction alopecia who despite being 25 years now looks 50 years, asking if she will wants her child when she is 25 years to look like that.
“Unfortunately, many parents do not understand the ramification of these hairstyles and hair practices; they see these as part of looking good. But by the time they are grown up, holding responsible positions and all that, their hair is gone.”
She added that women should not ignore headache or neck paid after hair do, she said “That you are losing your hair does not mean it is restricted to having just hair disorders and diseases, there are some other serious medical disorders that start with hair loss. Also, what we are preaching is that, for women to retain their scalp hair, anything they do to their hair must not be painful. Having a headache or neck pain after a hairdo is totally wrong.”