KINGSTON, Jamaica — Chris Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia has left a bitter taste in mouths across the world since Sunday’s 94th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

But the comment was particularly displeasing to alopecia patients and dermatologists who have had to treat the condition for years.

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disorder that causes your hair to come out, often in clumps the size and shape of a US quarter. The amount of hair loss is different for everyone as some people will lose hair in only a few spots while others lose a lot. In some cases, hair grows back but falls out again later, while in others, the hair grows back for good.

There are different types of this condition. Alopecia areata is most common in its main form, but there are other, more rare types such as alopecia areata totalis (means you’ve lost all the hair on your head); alopecia areata universalis (the loss of hair over your entire body); diffuse alopecia areata (the sudden thinning of your hair rather than lost patches); and ophiasis alopecia areata (which causes hair loss in a band shape around the sides and back of your head).

Alopecia is not curable, but it’s treatable and not life-threatening. However, the mental impact it has on those affected by it can be draining.

For an 18-year-old patient who has been diagnosed with alopecia for four years now, the condition has been an emotional rollercoaster.

“At first, it was really hard because I went through the whole ‘why me?’ thing and whatever and it was when like it was spreading so I didn’t know if it was gonna spread to my entire hair in which I would have to shave it off or if it would stay concentrated,” she shared with OBSERVER ONLINE.

“I wouldn’t really say it plummeted my self-esteem, more just like made me more self-conscious because I didn’t really want people to know. I actually didn’t really tell a lot of people and the people that did know kind of found out by accident, other than my parents,” she added.

But the teenager said she has since tried to come to terms with her condition.

“Everybody has their own stuff to go through. At first, it was really hard, especially I think, the age that it started as well, around 14/15 when you’re just trying to figure out yourself and that just coming on you and you don’t know why and doctors are telling you that ‘yes it’s an autoimmune illness but we don’t know exactly why its triggering it,” she explained.

She added that her doctor treated her alopecia with steroid injections in her scalp, which has so far had a positive impact on her hair growth.

“It’s been growing and I think that it has really slowed down and so it’s easier now living with it…I feel like soon I’ll just be back to normal,” she said.

But having struggled with alopecia for a while now, the teenager said Chris Rock’s comment hit close to home.

 “The joke was a bit distasteful. It really was. Joking about people’s medical condition, I feel like that should be off limits,” she said.

Likewise, Dermatologist, Dr Neil Persadsingh, labelled the comment as “bad manners”, “very very dark (humour)” and said it was of “very, very poor taste”.

Noting that the Oscar’s was presented to a worldwide audience, Dr Persadsingh shared that it was a very poor use of the platform to embarrass a woman.

He said patients with alopecia typically undergo all kinds of surgery and treatments and the continuous hair loss can be “embarrassing and depressing”.

“It’s very embarrassing. When you’re a man, you’d shave off your head and trim off your beard and nobody knows, but women don’t have that option,” Dr Persadsingh said, adding that the depression that comes with that can be overbearing.

Chris Rock joked that he was looking forward to a sequel to “G.I. Jane”, a joke in reference to actress Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head. However, Pinkett Smith disclosed four years ago that her alopecia was the reason she shaved her head or wore turbans in public.

The joke was not well received by the actress, or her husband Will Smith, who then strode up to Rock and slapped him. After returning to his seat, Smith shouted at Rock to “keep my wife’s name out of your (expletive) mouth.”

The moment shocked the Dolby Theatre audience and viewers at home.

READ: Will Smith, Chris Rock confrontation shocks Oscar audience

Smith has since apologised to fellow comedian Chris Rock and the Academy for what he dubbed as “unacceptable and inexcusable behaviour”.

READ: Will Smith apologises to Chris Rock, Academy, for punching Oscar host