Protecting the Crown: CCCA Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, the scarring hair loss that begins at the crown and most often affects women of African descent. Writers describe the first signs — tenderness, burning or itching, a thinning patch first spotted by a child, a barber or a stylist of thirty years — and the year of dandruff shampoo, oils and reassurance before anyone looked properly. There is the diagnosis: eleven months waiting for a referral, the biopsy, the second opinion, lupus ruled out, a mother asked hard questions about the family pattern. Writers describe treatment as it is actually lived: steroid injections into the scalp every six weeks, topical steroids, doxycycline, hydroxychloroquine and the eye checks that come with it, platelet-rich plasma tried with mixed results, and treatment understood as halting spread rather than regrowing what has scarred. They describe giving up relaxers and sew-ins, or learning they had never been the cause, lighter locs, scarves, hijab, wigs and silk pillowcases. Later chapters cover men with CCCA, pregnancy and menopause, insurance letters, military hair rules, dating, church, posting online, a surgeon's advice to wait, and what early diagnosis can save.

Who it's for

For anyone with tenderness or thinning at the crown, Black women and men who have been told it is just dandruff, the stylists and barbers who may notice first, and families where it runs.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 241 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.