A little boy has become an Instagram hit overnight as he is one of just around 100 people to be diagnosed with uncombable hair syndrome.
Locklan Samples, aged 17 months, was diagnosed after his mother Katelyn, 33, from Roswell, Georgia, posted a picture of her son to Instagram which courted attention around the world.
The little boy was eventually sent to a paediatric dermatologist specialist at Emory Hospital in Atlanta where he was diagnosed after a stranger on social media alerted his mum to the condition.
“At first, you see ‘syndrome’ and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ like, is something wrong with my baby? Is he in pain or something?” The mum told ABC’s Good Morning America.
The genetic condition, which is extremely rare, affects the hair shaft and characterised by unruly silvery-blond or straw-colored hair.
The hair cannot be combed flat as it stands out from the head, with the condition also being called “spun glass hair”.
The syndrome commonly shows up in children between three and 12; typically it resolves itself by puberty.
Dr. Carol Cheng, a paediatric dermatologist at UCLA Health, told Good Morning America a genetic test and an examination of a hair clipping through electron microscopy can help diagnose the condition.
“When you look under that microscope, you can see that instead of having hairs that are cylinder shape… The shaft of the hair is actually more in a triangular shape,” she said.
“Within the triangle, there (are) these little grooves that go up and down the long axis of the hair shaft so that's why it makes it really uncombable.”
The little boy’s mother said her son’s hair is very “fragile” and gets easily tangled.
Since his diagnosis, she has taken to Instagram to raise awareness of the rare condition where the youngster has won lots of fans for his special hair.
Among the comments, one said: “His hair gives me life.”
Another added: “His hair truly does make him extra special.”
