Widow's peak scalp hair anomaly; origin and relevance to ocular hypertelorism

A patient with an ectopic eye in the temporal scalp area showed an eyebrow and a striking lack of scalp hair growth in an appreciable zone around the temporal eye. This experiment of nature indicated that there is normally a region of hair growth suppression around the eye. The widow's peak midline scalp hair anomaly is interpreted as being secondary to a lower than usual position of intersection of the bilateral periocular fields of hair growth suppression on the forehead. This can occur because the periocular fields of hair growth suppression are smaller than usual or because they are widely spaced. The former is the apparent explanation in the 3% of normal individuals with a mild widow's peak and the latter explains the frequent association between ocular hypertelorism and widow's peak in which the more severe degrees of hypertelorism show the most pronounced widow's peak. The findings in simians were also found to be compatible with this hypothesis.