Determinants of marginal traction alopecia in African girls and women.

Background: Our recent population studies reported a prevalence of traction alopecia (TA) of 17.1% in African schoolgirls (6-21 years) and of 31.7% in women (18-86 years).

Prevalence of cutaneous adverse effects of hairdressing: a systematic review.

Objective: To identify studies of the prevalence of cutaneous complications of hairdressing in (1) hairdressers and the general population and (2) those more common in people of African ancestry.

Data Sources: Three versions of MEDLINE were searched from January 1966 through December 2004 and with a repeated search in August 2005 using 2 groups of search terms: group 1, terms used for hair care and specific study designs: survey, cross-sectional study, and cohort study; group 2, the terms African hair, Afro-Caribbean hair, African American hair, central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, acne keloidalis nuchae, traction alopecia, and synonyms for each.

Study Selection And Data Extraction: All identified cross-sectional and cohort studies of cutaneous adverse effects were included and their quality assessed using criteria developed by Radulescu et al.