[Hair darkening close to a patch of frontal fibrosing alopecia].

BACKGROUND

Fibrosing frontal alopecia is scarring form alopecia and is most often seen in menopausal women. It is currently considered as an anatomoclinical form of lichen planopilaris of selective topography. We report a case of hair repigmentation during the course of post-menopausal frontal fibrosing alopecia.

CASE REPORT

A 78-year-old woman developed alopecia of the scalp and eyebrows in 1997. Her eyebrows had been white for some ten years. In 1999, she noted repigmentation of a strip of hair at the edge of her scalp, but the rest of her hair remained white. The patient had not been taking any long-term drugs or any hair treatment. Histological examination of the regions of alopecia revealed lesions of lichenoid appearance at the junction with erosion by lymphocytes and keratinocytic necroses of the lower layers of the epidermis. Direct cutaneous immunofluorescence testing was negative. A diagnosis of post-menopausal fibrosing frontal alopecia was made on the basis of the clinical and laboratory evidence.

DISCUSSION

96 cases of post-menopausal fibrosing frontal alopecia have so far been reported in the literature, but to our knowledge, this is the first case combined with or inducing hair repigmentation. The other cases of repigmentation were eliminated by history-taking, and clinical or laboratory examinations. The mechanism of hair repigmentation in our patient could have been the result of a post-inflammatory process.