The development of non-scarring alopecia in women who wear the hijab

Abstract

Little is known about hair loss associated with wearing the hijab, a religious head covering worn by Muslim women. We performed a single-center analysis to investigate the association between various forms of non-scarring alopecia and wearing the hijab. This study included 125 patients who wore the hijab and 40 race/ethnicity-matched women who did not wear the hijab. Among the 165 total patients diagnosed between January 2015 and March 2022, 71 had telogen effluvium, 78 had female pattern hair loss, and 16 had traction alopecia. We found patients who wore the hijab had a younger mean age of alopecia onset than patients who did not wear the hijab (31.5 vs. 37.3 years; P = 0.02). Our study suggests that vitamin D deficiency (OR 4.1; 95% CI 1.2–14.1; P = 0.02) and seborrheic dermatitis (OR 2.9; 95% CI 1.1–8.1; P = 0.03) may significantly impact the development of telogen effluvium in patients who wear the hijab. Targeting these risk factors among patients who wear the hijab may be considered to prevent hair loss.