1976 Pinkus H and Mehregan AH

 
A Guide to Dermatohistopathology, 2nd ed. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1976 (Fig. 11).

View Figure  		Fig. 11  (orig. Fig. 188). Alopecia areata. A. Some relatively normal hair follicles and a "miniature follicle" often found in alopecia areata. This follicle also has the configuration of a "cloaked hair" due to sebaceous atrophy. This not too uncommon abnormality has no pathologic significance in itself (Epstein and Kligman, 1956). H&E, 75X. B. Inflammatory infiltrate associated with follicles of reduced size containing remnants of inner root sheath, but no hairs. H&E, 135X.
 

Message

 
A not uncommon malformation of vellus follicles on a face results from replacement of the sebaceous gland by a sheet of basal cells that surrounds the middle portion of the hair root like a skirt or cloak (the mantle of Felix Pinkus). It can be seen in histologic sections as epithelial spurs that flank the isthmus.
 

Critique

 
The mantle is a normal follicular structure that early in life and much later in life represents what remains of sebaceous glands that have involuted. At puberty, in contrast, the mantle is the anlage of sebaceous glands. At no stage is the mantle a malformation that replaces sebaceous glands.