Part 6 of our special series, A Journey Through Hair, is here.

On "Alopecia Areata: A Spot Licked by a Ghost?" ...

Alopecia areata usually turns up out of nowhere one day, and then one day you look and the hair has grown back. With alopecia totalis, where the hair falls out all at once, people must have said it was the work of a ghost, which is probably why the character for ghost was used.

The bald patches were about the size of a lick from a tongue, or about the size of a teardrop hitting the ground, so the characters for lick or tear were added, which is likely how the old names gwijidu and gwichedu came about.

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www.leemoonwon.com/