What Are the Different Types of Alopecia?

The word alopecia itself is a term specifically used for hair loss yet there are many subtypes of alopecia. These are the three primary subtypes of alopecia:

• Alopecia Areata - Patchy loss of hair whether that means patches on your legs, arms, pubic region, scalp, lashes or brows.
• Alopecia Totalis - Total (or near total) loss of facial hair and scalp hair (vellus or otherwise)
• Alopecia Universalis - Total loss of all bodily and scalp hair (vellus or otherwise)

Each of the terms are for more descriptive purposes since the each of the types can sometimes be vague and symptoms may seem to “overlap” each other in places. For example, a person who is diagnosed as Alopecia Universalis may have hair growing on her left knee. Does this make the person Alopecia Totalis instead?