Hairdressing Practices and Alopecia among Women Aged 15 to 45 in Bamako

Introduction: Alopecia is the pathological loss of hair, a frequent sign in dermatology whose etiologies are multifactorial. Alopecia in women can lead to a loss of self-esteem leading to depression and thus alter the quality of life. Better knowledge of the etiologies will make it possible to prevent certain types of alopecia in women and to improve case management. The aim of this work is to study the causes of alopecia in women aged 15 to 45 in the dermatology department of the National Center for Support in the Fight against Disease (CNAM). Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study from February 2018 to February 2019, all women aged 15 to 45 consulting in the service during the study period. Case definition: alopecia any patient between the ages of 15 and 45 consulting for localized or diffuse hair loss. Results: We recruited 102 cases of alopecia out of 7223 women, i.e. a prevalence of 1.41%. The 25-35 age group represented 39%, with an average age of 28. Married women numbered 48, or 47.06%. Civil servants accounted for 28.43%. 87.25% of cases resided in urban areas. The duration of disease progression ranged from 1-12 months for 48.04% to 1-3 years for 36.28% and more than 3 years for 15.68%. The styling practices found in our cases: weaving, straightening, additions, represented respectively (97.06%, 53.92%, 72.54%); braids with addition every 04 weeks was practiced by 30 of our cases. Potash was used by 72.54% of cases for straightening. Our patients straightened their hair at a periodic rate of 3 months for 31.51% of cases, a rate of 6 months for 26.03% of cases. Alopecia was frontal seat, Traumatic alopecia was found in 33.33% of subjects practicing straightening. Rural women suffered from inflammatory causes (P=0.00005). Close straightening sessions expose to the risk of traumatic alopecia (P=0.03). Conclusion: The etiologies of alopecia are dominated by traumatic causes. This underlines the harmful effect of certain styling practices in ...