(Reuters) - Very tight braiding or weaving may be linked to a permanent type of hair loss that affects many African American women, according to a U.S. study.

Prolonged pulling at the hair strands may cause inflammation of the hair follicle, which has been showed to lead to scarring.

In principle, this could lead to scarring hair loss or central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, a type of balding that starts at the top of the scalp and then spreads slowly to the rest.