Pseudopelade (of Brocq; Brocq's alopecia) is an ill-defined entity thought by some to represent the end stage of various forms of cicatricial alopecia and by others to represent a primary process where scarring alopecia develops ab initio (from the beginning). The disease is considered a disease of exclusion. If a definitive diagnosis of another form of cicatricial alopecia can be made based on clinical, histologic, or immunofluorescent features, then the term pseudopelade of Brocq does not apply.

Pseudopelade of Brocq usually affects White women between the ages of 30 and 50 years. It is a rare, insidious, scarring alopecia that presents with discrete asymptomatic areas of scalp hair loss. The hair loss is permanent. In some patients, the disease is slowly progressive, but in others, it worsens during periods of activity followed by periods of no activity.

The alopecia results in round, oval, or irregularly shaped, often widely distributed and grouped bald patches on the scalp. In advanced cases, it has also been described as "footprints in the snow" with islands of hairs that persist in a background of sclerosis. Pelade is a French term for alopecia areata, which pseudopelade resembles. The same "burnt-out" pattern of hair loss observed in pseudopelade can be seen in lichen planopilaris, discoid lupus erythematosus, and other forms of cicatricial alopecia.

Related topic: central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia