Belinda Robinson always had thick natural hair and treated it gently, without harsh chemicals. But one day about 17 years ago, she noticed a small smooth spot on the back of her head. After several more years of thinning, she was diagnosed with a kind of alopecia, the general term for hair loss. “When I was first diagnosed I cried, I really cried; it was hard to swallow,” said Robinson, now 53 and an adjunct professor and federal employee who lives in Northern Virginia.
