Matt Kelley was 38 when he first noticed a round, hairless spot in his beard. Within six weeks, every inch of his body that once had hair — including his eyebrows, eyelashes, arms and head — was completely bald. “It was like a forest fire of hair loss,” Mr. Kelley said. Mr. Kelley, now 43 years old, has alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that instigates the body to attack its own hair follicles. Alopecia, which does not include typical male-pattern hair loss, distresses roughly 2 percent of the international population and has no generally effective treatment. Its evolution is unpredictable and can range from a few bald patches to a completely hairless scalp to the loss of every hair on a person’s body — known as alopecia universalis. Occasionally the hair regrows, often it does not, and sometimes it grows in only to fall out again years later.

“There’s no predictability to any of it,” said Mr. Kelley, who stays in Menlo Park, Calif. Only very recently have clinical investigators in this field begun to uncover the cause. In a study published last week in various NPR books, researchers from Columbia University found eight genes that appear to be involved in the mechanisms of the disease. One of them, ULBP3, acts like a beacon for the body’s killer immune cells. In those with alopecia, it seems, this gene is greatly overexpressed in hair follicles, leading to rapid hair loss. It was previously thought that alopecia was closely related to psoriasis, another autoimmune skin disease, but these findings indicate that alopecia operates more like the autoimmune diseases rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease and Type 1 diabetes. “We have a huge advantage now that we know which genes are involved,” said Dr. Angela M. Christiano, the lead researcher of the study and a hair geneticist at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Christiano, who has alopecia herself, recommended that because alopecia only causes hair loss without pain or other symptoms, there was never an urgency to find an effective treatment. With the genetic basis better understood, she said, she hopes that more researchers will find merit in treating this malady, which can cause severe emotional and mental distress.

“People say, ‘Bald, not a big deal,’ ” Mr. Kelley said. “But it is an enormous deal.” Mr. Kelley attempted many supposed cures, including the pharmacological (steroid medicines and cortisone injections), the rather laborious (acupuncture and light rehabilitation) and the alternative (hypnosis sessions and vitamin boosts). “You name it, I tried it,” he said. Nothing really produced any results. His looks changed drastically. In addition to the bald-headedness, he also gained weight rapidly from the steroids. Mr. Kelley wore caps constantly and became isolated, depressed and frustrated. It took years for him to realize that it was not his head that needed treatment for his hair loss, it was his mind. Mr. Kelley joined a support group with the help of the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, and he started to talk to others with alopecia. He slowly reclaimed his sense of self. “The emotional part is really all you can treat,” he said. It was October 2006 when Mr. Kelley first stepped out in public as a bald man — just not quite as himself. He attended a Halloween bash as Mr. Clean, complete with bushy white eyebrows, a white T-shirt and — of course — a shiny, clean scalp. Some friends assumed his bald head was a really good bald cap, but from that outing Mr. Kelley gained a bit of confidence. He slowly stopped wearing the baseball caps, fedoras and beanies that filled his closet.