Dandruff and Hair Loss in 16 Year Old

My son is 16yrs old. I noticed when cutting his hair he had a thick piece of what seemed like caked dandruff it was there for the longest time. Then one day when cutting his hair the thick piece of dandruff was gone and ther was a bald spot. As I looked at his head I noticed there was a thin straight line of baldness then off to the right was another little spot. I took him to the dr. who did a blood test for his throid and that came back good. His spot is getting bigger and it doesn’t look like any hair is growing back from where I orig. saw the spot. There is not balding in either of the families. I checked his head tonight it looks like there is flakey dandruff all over his scalp and even some broken skin like he had been scratching. I have made an appointment with a dermotoligst but what should I expect. Do you have any idea what this is?

What you are describing may be a localized area of psoriasis or seborrheic dermatitis which crusted and then with the crust ‘ripped’ off, the hair came out with it. The loss of local hair from an acute traction episode, could be responsible for what you are observing, and if this is the case, the hair will return if your son leaves it alone. What appears like dandruff may turn out to be seborrheic dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, alopecia areata, or some other dermatological inflammatory disease of the skin. Your planned visit to a dermatologist for further evaluation is a good next step.

On a separate, interesting note, doctors have recently pinpointed the Psoriasis gene: Forbes.com