iStockphoto / baibaz
An 18-year-old man in India has captured a new Guinness World Record for having the ‘hairiest face‘ of anyone alive. His extremely rare, 1-in-1 billion condition, had caused 95% of his face to be covered in facial hair.
According to Guinness World Records, the ultra-rare condition known as ‘hypertrichosis’ has only been documented 50 times since the Middle Ages. The condition causes hair growth not just on his face but all over.
In order to certify this new world record, Lalit Patidar traveled from India to Italy (for a TV show) where he met with a trichologist, a hair and scalp specialist, who assessed Lalit’s face. It was determined that 95% of his entire face was covered in hair, earning him the title of ‘hairiest face’ on earth with a whopping 201.72 hairs per square centimeter.
If this all looks vaguely familiar it might perhaps be because you have come across his YouTube channel before. Prior to earning the official Guinness World Record for ‘Hairiest Face,’ Lalit Patidar has built up a large following on YouTube where he maintains over 108K subscribers and shares videos of how his unique condition impacts his daily life.
It’s hard to tell at times where the hair on his scalp ends and the hair on his face begins as there’s a sort of uniformity to the hair color that isn’t often seen with male facial hair:
Hypertrichosis is often known as ‘Werewolf Syndrome’ due to how it presents. And it is one of the least-studied medical conditions in Dermatology due simply to the fact that it’s so rare. Only 50 cases including this one have been documented since the 1500s.
There is a pretty fascinating Wikipedia page on ‘Werewolf Syndrome‘ which, if you scroll down, has a history of famous instances of hypertrichosis. It can be inherited through genetics but ‘Werewolf Syndrome’ also can present after cancer, drug use, and is also associated with some eating disorders. All of that is to say that very little is known about the condition impacting the man with the world’s hairiest face.