Folliculitis is described as

• A. Inflammation of the hair shaft
• B. Inflammation of the sebaceous gland
• C. Inflammation of the hair follicle
• D. Inflammation of the scalp

Answer: (A)

Folliculitis means inflammation around the hair follicle—the tiny invagination in the skin where the hair grows and where a sebaceous gland opens. The inflammation centers on the follicle itself, not on the hair shaft that extends upward from it. If the issue were inflammation of the shaft, that would describe something different, and inflammation limited to a sebaceous gland would point to a different condition than folliculitis. The scalp is just a location; it doesn’t define what the inflammation is about. So the best description is inflammation of the hair follicle.