HYPERTRICHOSIS

By: Shyan Chapman 08/19/04

Hypertrichosis is a rare disorder in which the entire body is covered in hair or portions of the body are covered in a thick/long coating of hair.

It is said that many things such as malnutrition and infection can cause Hypertrichosis. It is a common symptom of Anorexia Nervosa. Most people with this disorder were born with it making it a congenital condition.

There really is no “cure” for this condition but there are temporary treatments such as chemical epilation, shaving/waxing, electrolysis and thermolysis. The best-known treatment is using Pulsed Light (PhotoDerm VL).

Two of the most famous cases of this disorder are that of Petrus Gonsalvus and Stephan Bilgraski. Petrus Gonsalvus was born in Tenerife in 1556, he was covered by hair and upon marrying a beautiful Parisian woman he passed the disorder down to his two children. He and his children had portraits painted of them and are still held in a museum in Vienna for all to see.

While Stephan Bilgraski was still in his mother’s whom, she was witness to her husband being viciously attacked and ripped to shreds by lions. When Stephan Bilgraski was born he had 6 inches of fur that covered his entire body. His mother blamed it on what she had witnessed with her husband and the Lions, she saw it as some kind of curse and thought the two incidences to be related somehow. Stephan Bilgraski moved to the US and began to travel in a circus as the Lion-Faced Polish Boy. As WWII broke out, Stephan Bilgraski moved back to his homeland and while there he was captured by Nazis and was gassed.

A more current case of the disorder can be found in the mountain town of Zacatecas, Mexico. There lives the Aceves family in which all 32 members have this disorder. Some of the family travels in a circus in the US under the sideshow name, “The Wolf People”.