A teenage boy has been left ‘speechless’ after scooping the Guinness World Record for the ‘hairiest face’, with 95% of his face blanketed in hair
A teenage boy from India has cemented his place in the record books, by securing the Guinness World Record for having the hairiest face on a man. Lalit Patidar, who hails from Ratlam in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, was born with a rare condition, hypertrichosis, more commonly referred to as ‘werewolf syndrome’ which has left his face blanketed in hair since he was a child.
Originally diagnosed at the age of 6, much of Lalit’s life has been spent facing ridicule from those around him, after the condition caused abnormal amounts of fine hairs measuring up to 5cm long to grow on his face, arms and other parts of his body.
In particular, his time at school was plagued by bullies who cruelly taunted him by naming him “monkey boy” and expressing their fears that he would bite them.
As the condition has no cure, it often dominates a patient’s life, leaving them to manage their symptoms by shaving, waxing and cutting their hair frequently in an attempt to maintain some degree of normality in their day to day lives.
However, even despite the hardships he has endured, Lalit has chosen to embrace his natural appearance, and revealed he is “speechless” and “very happy” to have earned a Guinness World Record, after 95% of his face was covered hair.
Appearing on Italian TV show “Lo Show die Record” Lalit’s hair was officially measured before adjudicators revealed he had cemented his place in the history books as the man with the world ’s hairiest face.
As part of the adjudicating process, a hair and scalp specialist, called a trichologist, shaved small portions of his face in order to accurately measure the number of hairs per square centimetre. This revealed he had 201.72 hairs per square cm, officially making him the new record holder for: 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.”
When asked whether he would consider removing his facial hair in future, Lalit quickly shut down such suggestions proudly telling the world: “I like how I am, and I don’t want to change my look.”