Guinness World Records honours teen with rare 'werewolf syndrome'

An 18-year-old Indian boy has earned the Guinness World Record for the hairiest face on a male, with officials measuring 201.72 hairs per square centimeter of his skin.

Lalit Patidar earned the record after living his 18 years with a rare hair growth condition called hypertrichosis, also known as “werewolf syndrome”, according to UPI. 

Only one out of a billion people have this condition, with only 50 such recorded cases since the Middle Ages making the hair growth ability a rare phenomenon.

Patidar has had hair on 90% of his face since he was a child. 

He told the Guinness World Records that initially his school fellows were scared of him. "But when they started knowing me and talking to me they understood I was no different than them, and it was just on the outside that I looked different, but I'm not different inside."

Panditar added that people still tell him he should have removed the hair from his face.

"There is not much to say to people about that. I tell them that I like how I am and I don't want to change my look," Patidar said.

"I am speechless, I don't know what to say because I'm very happy to get this recognition," he said on achieving the record.