He’s lived a hair-raising life.
An Indian teen is opening up about being bullied his entire life due to a rare condition that caused him to sprout “werewolf” fur all over his body.
“When I was young, I had people throw stones at me,” Lalit Patidar, 17, told Media Drum World of his thick curly mane. “Kids were worried I would come back to bite them like an animal.”
Patidar, who lives in Nandleta in Madhya Pradesh, specifically suffers from hypertrichosis, which the National Library of Medicine defines as “excessive hair growth anywhere on the body.”
There are two distinct types of the ailment: generalized hypertrichosis, which occurs over the entire body, and the localized version, which is restricted to a specific region of the body. Hypertrichosis can be either present at birth or crop up in adulthood.
The ailment, which is also known as “werewolf syndrome,” is extremely rare, with fewer than 100 recorded cases since the middle ages.
Patidar has reportedly been suffering from the condition his “whole life” — but didn’t really notice anything was awry until adolescence.
“My parents say the doctor shaved me at birth but I didn’t really notice anything was different about me until I was around 6 or 7 years old,” the high school senior explained. “That’s when I first took notice that the hair was growing all over my body like no one else I knew.”
‘I am different from common humans in a good way — I am unique.’
Patidar, 17, on defying haters and coming to terms with his condition.
Doctors subsequently diagnosed Patidar with hypertrichosis, which he found odd as none of his other family members suffer from the affliction.
And while the bearded boy was initially unbothered by his premature mane due to his young age, “my family members and my parents used to worry a lot about me,” he said. “Small children used to get scared seeing me, and as a child I did not know why.”
As time passed, Patidar increasingly became aware of the fact that he was different from the other kids. “As I grew up I realized that my whole body had hair and that was not like everyone else,” said the teen, who soon become the target of bullying due to his unusual appearance.
“My schoolmates used to tease me, they would shout ‘monkey monkey’ at me,” Patidar lamented. “People also tease me by calling me a ghost, they think I am some sort of mythical being but I am not these things.”
He added, “I see parents moving their small children away from me, it makes me sad to think they are scared.”
Bullies would even throw stones at him like he was a monster from an old-time horror film.
As of yet, there is no cure for hypertrichosis. Sufferers simply try and keep the perennial mane at bay via bleaching, trimming, shaving, waxing, lasers and other hair removal methods.
Thankfully, Patidar has since learned to embrace his unique countenance, and not let it prevent him from leading a happy and fulfilling life.
“I am different from common humans in a good way, I am unique,” declared the follicularly endowed fellow. “Slowly everyone in my family started feeling normal about it and my friends also encouraged me a lot.”
Patidar has even started blogging and creating videos with the goal of someday becoming a famous YouTuber.
Ultimately, he feels that physical appearance shouldn’t prevent someone from following their dreams.
“I got to learn many things during my journey, most importantly I got to learn that I am one in a million,” the teen said. “I should never give up and live life to the fullest I always want to move forward and be happy.”
This isn’t the first high-profile case of hypertrichosis, which famously afflicted several circus “freaks” in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Perhaps the most famous was Julia Pastrana, a Mexican performer known as the “bear lady” on the circus circuit due to her heavily forested face.
In a more recent example several years ago, children in Spain sprouted hair all over their bodies after they were accidentally administered a hair loss drug for their indigestion.