Italian doctor suggests Mona Lisa had rare hair loss condition

Italian doctor suggests Mona Lisa had rare hair loss condition2 publishers · first seen Wed, 28 Oct 2026 14:38 UTC · updated Wed, 28 Oct 2026 21:51 UTCItalian dermatologist Luigi Laino suggests that Lisa del Giocondo, the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa', had alopecia areata universalis, an autoimmune condition causing total hair loss, based on her missing eyebrows, absent eyelashes, abrupt hairline, and smooth skin. He links the condition to biographic stressors such as marriage at a young age, motherhood, plague, and political unrest in 16th-century Florence.Laino's theory, published in Clinics in Dermatology, argues that only alopecia areata universalis explains all four facial features. While some researchers suggest the missing brows may be due to paint degradation or Renaissance beauty practices like plucking, Laino maintains the evidence supports his diagnosis. The condition affects roughly 2% of people during their lifetime, though the universalis form is rarer.Content auto-generated. May contain inaccuracies.