BACKGROUND: Alopecia areata [AA] is a non–scarring alopecia that is postulated to be a hair specific autoimmune disease .1 Although most obvious on the scalp, any hair–bearing skin can be affected, and is frequently found to involve the beard area .2 Various patterns of AA are patchy, ophiasis, sisaphio, reticulate, diffuse , subtotal , alopecia totalis and alopecia universalis . 3 Alopecia totalis is complete loss of terminal hair on the scalp .2 Alopecia universalis is total loss of all terminal hair on the scalp and body .2Ophiasis is a band–like pattern of hair loss at the periphery of the scalp .2 Sisaphio means inverse ophiasis . AA is a chronic , organ specific autoimmune disease, probably mediated by autoreactive T cells , which affects hair follicles and sometimes the nails .2 AIMS: Our present study was aimed to elucidate the epidemiology , aetiological factors and it’s clinical patterns in the causation of alopecia areata in patients attended to King George Hospital (KGH) affiliated to Andhra medical college , Visakhapatnam , Andhra pradesh ,South India . MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of sixty patients with alopecia areata attended to the out–patient department of KGH were enrolled for the study . The demographic data was recorded and clinical evaluation was done . All alopecia areata cases encountered were included and alopecia due to other causes were excluded . RESULTS : In this study ,it was observed that patients belonging to the 10–30 years age group were affected more(74.99%) commonly (Table 1) . Females (56.67%) were affected more when compared to males (43.33%) (Table2). The occupational incidence of alopecia areata was observed more in students(49.99%) followed by house wives(29.99%) (Table3) and association with other conditions were noted in limited number of patients (Table 4). Among the various clinical patterns of alopecia areata , patchy pattern was observed in high(84.99%) number of patients (Table–5) . CONCLUSION: In this part (Visakhapatnam) of the country alopecia areata is very common in females and mostly observed in students and house wives .