During March Madness in recent years social media goes wild during Providence basketball games and always asks the same question – why does head coach Ed Cooley have bald spots in his hair?
Cooley has not spoken extensively on the subject but his condition is believed to be either alopecia areata or vitiligo.
Alopecia areata is what former NBA player Charlie Villanueva and Pittsburg Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier suffer from, though their condition affects their entire body. In the majority of alopecia cases (over 6 million cases in the United States alone) hair falls out in small patches on the scalp.
Vitiligo is a condition where pigment cells are lost on the skin. It creates discolored patches on different areas of the body. This is the condition late pop superstar Michael Jackson reportedly suffered from and the condition former baseball superstar Sammy Sosa is said to have.
