Marie Antoinette syndrome is an alleged condition of hair suddenly turning white. The name comes from folklore about the hair of Queen Marie Antoinette of France turning stark white after her capture following the ill-fated flight to Varennes during the French Revolution. According to the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), witnesses claimed that Antoinette's hair rapidly turned white on three separate occasions.
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Causes
The syndrome has been hypothesized to be a variant of alopecia areata diffusa or autoimmune non-scarring hair loss that selectively affects all pigmented hairs, leaving only the white hair behind.
Triggers activating such hair loss were postulated in the 19th century, including sorrow and fear, fits of rage, extreme stress, and unexpected bad news. These form the basis of most uses of the idea in fictional works.
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History
The earliest surviving recorded claim of sudden whitening of the hair is represented in the Talmud, by a story of a Jewish scholar who, at the age of 17 years, developed white hair locks due to overwork. Recent cases have also been noted in Fleetwood Mount Vernon, where Chris has white spots in his hair, and marks on his skin notifying the disease.
Now and again, contemporary cases of accelerated (though not sudden) hair-whitening have been documented, as with bombing victims in the Second World War, and in a case covered in the medical journal Archives of Dermatology in 2009.
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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