COVID-19 Vaccination Related Exacerbations of Hair Loss in Patients With Moderate-to-Severe Alopecia Areata on Systemic Therapy

    August 2022 in “ JAAD case reports ”
    Arash Babadjouni, Celine Phong, Cristina Nguyen, Natasha Atanaskova Mesinkovska
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    TLDR COVID-19 vaccines may rarely worsen hair loss in people with severe alopecia, but the benefits of vaccination still outweigh this risk.
    The study investigated the effects of COVID-19 vaccines on hair loss in 69 patients with moderate-to-severe alopecia areata (AA) undergoing systemic therapy. Of these, 49 received COVID-19 vaccines, and 20 did not. Only 3 vaccinated patients reported hair loss, which started about 2 weeks post-vaccination and lasted up to 20 weeks. The study suggests that COVID-19 vaccines might stimulate systemic immune activation, potentially leading to disease flares in predisposed patients. However, these events are rare, and the benefits of vaccination outweigh the theoretical risk of autoimmune flares. The study also highlighted three cases where patients' Severity of Alopecia Tool (SALT) scores increased after vaccination. The researchers concluded that while there might be an association between COVID-19 vaccines and worsening hair loss, more large-scale studies are needed for a definitive link.
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