Shocking picture shows teen with ‘werewolf syndrome’ – he’s broken world record for ‘hairiest face’

A teen from India has made history by securing the Guinness World Record for having the hairiest face on a man.

Lalit Patidar, from Ratlam in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, was born with the extremely rare ‘werewolf syndrome’, leaving his face blanketed in hair. 

The now 18-year-old was diagnosed with the condition, which can cause abnormal amounts of fine hairs measuring up to 5cm long to grow on a person’s face, arms and other parts of their body, when he was just six.

Known medically as hypertrichosis, only about 50 cases have ever been documented.

It has no cure, leaving patients to manage their symptoms by shaving, waxing or cutting the hair. 

Mr Patidar’s condition has seen him stand out all his life. As a student he endured being labelled ‘monkey boy’ by cruel schoolchildren who said they were afraid he would bite them. 

Now, however, the teen has said he is ‘speechless’ and ‘very happy’ to be recognised as a world record holder with 95 per cent of his face covered in hair. 

Invited to Milan, Italy, to appear on the show ‘Lo Show dei Record’, his facial hair was officially measured, cementing his place in the history books. 

A hair and scalp specialist, called a trichologist, shaved tiny portions of his face to take accurate measurements of the number of hairs per square cm.

This revealed he had 201.72 hairs per square cm, officially making him ‘The Hairiest Face on a Person (Male)’.

Celebrating his win, Mr Patidar said: ‘I am speechless. I don’t know what to say because I am very happy to get this recognition.’

‘It’s now very rare that people are not treating me well. Most people are good to me. It depends on the person. 

‘The first day of school wasn’t so good because the other kids were scared of me, but when they got to know me, they realised I’m not so different from them.’

While some people have urged him to remove his facial hair, he has no plans to follow their advice.

‘I like how I am, and I don’t want to change my look,’ he said. 

He celebrates his unique look on social media, boasting more than 265,000 Instagram followers and 108,000 YouTube subscribers by filming aspects of his day-to-day life. 

There are two distinct types of hypertrichosis — generalised hypertrichosis, which occurs over the entire body, and localised hypertrichosis, which is restricted to a certain area.

Hypertrichosis can be either congenital — present at birth — or acquired later in life.

Last year, Spanish health chiefs warned that a popular hair-loss drug may be causing babies to suffer ‘werewolf syndrome’, leaving them blanketed in hair.

Almost a dozen cases have now been reported in Europe since 2023. 

Officials believe the newborns developed the condition after their parents used over-the-counter remedy minoxidil, which is commonly applied to the scalp to encourage hair growth.

According to the Pharmacovigilance Centre of Navarra, a province in northern Spain, concerns were first raised about the bizarre phenomenon in April 2023 after a baby boy developed hair on his back, legs and thighs over two months.

Health experts discovered that his father, who had been off work for a month looking after him, had been using a five percent minoxidil lotion on his scalp to treat baldness.

However, when the baby was no longer exposed to this drug, his symptoms regressed. 

They then discovered 10 other recent cases of ‘werewolf syndrome’ in babies linked to minoxidil in Europe.

In every case, symptoms reduced after the parent stopped taking minoxidil.