Alopecia Definition: Hair loss. In GlaxoSmithKline v Cherney, Justice Roscoe of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal adopted these words:"[T]he term alopecia means hair loss for any reason."Alopecia areata involves loss of hair in a specific place, such as the scalp."Alopecia universalis, which is another form of the condition, is usually considered to be an auto-immune disease and results in total permanent loss of hair from the whole body."REFERENCES:GlaxoSmithKline Inc. v. Cherney, 2009 NSCA 68 Categories & Topics: Medical-Legal Dictionary Find you are constantly looking up definitions? Try our search provider (works in most modern browsers) If you find an error or omission in Duhaime's Legal Dictionary, or if you have legal term suggestion, we'd love to hear from you!