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• DEMODEX - A SMART AND SEXIST MITE

• HairSite Editorial - 4/14/98

• HairStie

• David Tse   HairSite@aol.com

A loyal reader of HairSite has forwarded the following joke about Demodex (modified) :

"Someone told me today that the Demodex mite must really be smart to know how to kill hair in the horseshoe pattern on men but when they get in women's hair, they get totally confused. Also, the mite must be sexist since it prefers to attack men more often than women."

With the above joke, one can't help but wonder:

1) If Demodex is really causing hair loss, why do they always kill men's follicles in the horseshoe pattern ? And when it comes to women, they decide to kill the hair follicles in a diffuse pattern ?

2) If Demodex is really causing hair loss, why doesn't the mite attack an equal proportion of men and women ?