1-Year-Old One of 100 People In the World to Be Diagnosed With ‘Uncombable Hair Syndrome’
Many babies have soft, easily combable hair. That’s why they call super soft hair “baby hair,” isn’t it?
However, there’s actually a very rare condition called “Uncombable Hair Syndrome,” where a baby’s hair isn’t really combable at all. The hair may be soft, but it sticks straight out of the head and is very delicate. That’s what 16-month-old Locklan Samples was diagnosed with recently—and his mom, Katelyn, wants to broaden awareness of the syndrome.
Locklan, called “Lock,” is just one of 100 known cares of Uncombable Hair Syndrome. Luckily, though his hair is fragile, he doesn’t have any other symptoms that would derail his health.
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The weird thing is Lock was born with completely normal baby hair. It was jet black until he turned 6 months old when it began to be replaced with what his parents call “peach fuzz.” “We were like, huh, what is this?” Katelyn told PEOPLE. “We knew it was different but didn’t know exactly how. And then it kept growing and growing.”
At 9 months old, Lock’s hair had turned to a white-blond, which is the same color as his 3-year-old brother Shep’s hair. However, it had a much different texture, and was super soft and sticking straight up out of his head. It was truly “uncombable!”
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“People were definitely noticing it,” Katelyn said. In fact, it was so noticeable that a complete stranger messaged Katelyn on Instagram telling her about “uncombable hair syndrome,” which is how she first came across it.
Of course, that sent Katelyn into a spiral, as it probably would any mom. “I was like, oh my God, what is this? Is something wrong with my baby?” she says. “I went into tailspins on Google.”
After calling her pediatrician, she was directed to a specialist who told her she’d only seen “uncontrollable hair syndrome” once in 19 years. “She didn’t think it was uncombable hair syndrome, because of how rare it is, but they took samples and a pathologist looked at it under a special microscope,” Katelyn said.
And sure enough, the results showed that it was indeed the rare syndrome they anticipated.
It was quite the shock for the parents. “You’re just going about your day thinking everything’s fine and that your kid might have curly hair, which does run in the family. And then to hear that there’s a rare syndrome associated with your kid — it was crazy,” Katelyn says.
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Luckily, Lock has been developing normally in all other aspects. The only thing the syndrome seems to affect is his hair. And we think he looks pretty darn cute with that stick-straight peach fuzz! Plus, there are some unexpected benefits. “I hardly have to wash it, unless he’s literally playing in the dirt, because it doesn’t get greasy,” Katelyn explained. “It’s incredibly soft, and people want to touch it all the time. I hardly brush it, because it’s very fragile. I just try to be very gentle with it and not mess with it unless I have to.”
Learn more about Lock and his uncombable hair in the video below!
Do you know anyone with “uncombable hair syndrome”? What do you think of Lock’s hair?
