I’m watching the Cubs game on ESPN tonight and I noticed their manager Mike Quade appears to have no hair on his head at all, including a lack of eyebrows and maybe even eyelashes. Thats gotta be alopecia right? I didn’t realize it could cause complete hair loss like that. I thought it was more spotty.
After looking at some photos, I immediately assumed that this was some form of alopecia areata (probably totalis or universalis), so I looked into it a little to see if he’s spoken about it in the press. Sure enough, an article about Mike Quade in the NY Times from last year says, “Quade was 3 when he was found to have alopecia areata, a condition that caused him to lose his hair. Playing sports, he said, was a path to acceptance, a means of softening the taunts from other children.”
So there you go. Different forms of alopecia areata can cause different types of loss, and you can learn more about them at the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF) site. It appears that Mike Quade has alopecia universalis.
Another professional sports figure with alopecia areata that comes to mind is NBA player Charlie Villanueva, and he is as a spokesperson for the NAAF.