Loose anagen syndrome

Loose anagen syndrome is a hair disorder characterized by the easy, pain-free detachment of hairs that are still in their active growth, or anagen, phase from the scalp. It results from an absent or insufficient inner root sheath in these anagen-stage hairs, which disrupts the normal connection between the inner root sheath and the hair cuticle and prevents the hair from anchoring and growing normally. It predominantly affects fair-haired children between about ages 2 and 8, with a female-to-male ratio of roughly 6 to 1 and an estimated incidence of 2 to 2.5 cases per million people, and can occur spontaneously or be inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern; hair thinning appears across the scalp or at the back of the head, while eyebrows, eyelashes, nails, teeth and skin are unaffected, and the condition is generally self-limiting, improving with age and puberty.