Follicular disorders of the face

Follicular disorders are possibly a commonly seen, though rarely reported, group of disorders, which are localized around follicles and appendages and clinically present as small papules. Classically, clinicopathological follicular plugging is seen in the “true” follicular disorders, which are appropriately referred to as follicular keratosis. Another subtype is folliculitis (infectious or noninfectious) and the follicular mimickers that clinically resemble “true” follicular disorders without the follicular keratoses. Acne vulgaris has an amalgamation of all the above lesion types. Our review is aimed at describing all the follicular disorders and gives an algorithm for diagnosing the common follicular disorders.