My Daughter Had Lice and Is Now Losing Hair Where the Infestation Was the Worst

My 10 year old daughter had head lice at the beginning of the school year–shortly after, like 1 week, I noticed that she was very rapidly losing her hair..It appears to be concentrated around her ears and back of head, where the lice were the worst, and she scratched the most!! I took her to a ped dermatogist..she diagnosed her with alopecia areata..All the lab work was done, and it was negative.. I am not convinced that she has alopecia, I feel it is related to the lice!! Either an infection, or reaction from the Nix!?? Would love your opinion, please!! Thank you

Infestation with lice can cause itching due to an allergic reaction and inflammation to the bites. This is a known cause of hair loss. Any irritation of the skin in patients who are prone to alopecia areata, can aggravate its occurrence. Clearly the differential diagnosis is alopecia areata in conjunction with lice or lice by itself. If you cure the lice (easy to treat) and the hair comes back, then the diagnosis will be evident. Hopefully, if she has been harshly scratching the scalp, that could have caused the hair loss.