RT Journal
A1 Kantor J
T1 Plica polonica: Confusion, confabulation, and the death of a disease
JF Archives of Dermatology
JO Archives of Dermatology
YR 2012
FD May 1
VO 148
IS 5
SP 633
OP 633
DO 10.1001/archdermatol.2012.443
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archdermatol.2012.443
AB 
For half a millennium, physicians and scholars have investigated the etiology of and therapeutic options for a disease known as plica polonica, described originally by Johannes Schenck von Grafenberg1 in 1584 as an irreversible plaiting of the hair accompanied by lice, headache, mutilating arthritis, scoliosis, and onychogryphosis. Referred to variously as trica incubarus (devil's hair), weichselzopf, and plica polonica, early descriptions of this entity focused as much on its perceived spiritual roots as its medical origins.