A rare hair-shaft configuration characterised by excessively dry, sometimes brittle and easily fragmented, tightly coiled curls present from birth or early infancy in Non-Afroids.
It may affect part or all of the scalp. The pigmentation of the hair-shaft may be uneven.
Afroid hair-shafts with which the condition may be confused, exist in a curly but untangled state - Woolly Hair manifests as tight curls inextricably intertwined making combing/brushing near impossible.
The condition may affect successive generations and may be due to
a) autosomal dominant inheritance (one parent carries the faulty dominant gene).
b) recessive dominant inheritance (both parents carry the faulty dominant gene).
The level of curl tends to lessen in adult life.
Microscopical examination reveals:
i) That the transverse sectional shape may be oval, triangular or irregular.
ii) Cuticle cells may be either damaged or absent at distal sections.
iii) Fragmentation and fracturing of the cortex occurs - this may develop as trichorrhexis nodosa or trichoptilosis.
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