Hypertrichosis is a werewolf syndrome. It is a situation that can be featured by overly hair growth anywhere on a person’s body. However, it is a sporadic syndrome but can affect both males and females. The hair growth is abnormal. It might occur on the face and body in small spots. hypotrichosis occurs during birth or evolves with time.
Keep reading the article to grasp the variant kind of hypertrichosis, what might cause it, and how it is treated.
Table of Contents
Types of Hypertrichosis
There are several kinds of hypertrichosis. These kinds are arranged according to how they occurred and how the condition got developed.
Congenital Hypertrichosis Lanuginosa
The fine lanugo hair seems as usual in a fetus. But it does not disappear after birth. The follicles remain steadily growing to grow very denser in distinct regions of the body during life.
Congenital Hypertrichosis Terminalis
Somewhat of getting born with lanugo or vellus hair, the baby might have terminal hair during birth that emerges during their lifespan. The affected persons usually have dense and pigmented hair all over the body. It also includes the face.
Acquired Hypertrichosis
Acquired hypertrichosis that takes place later in life. It obeys, likewise, several patterns of congenital hypertrichosis. Hair might be lanugo, vellus, or terminal hair. It can occur in small spots or over the entire body.
Naevoid Hypertrichosis
More dense hair growth is seen on one or more patches of the skin. The best example is a very thick and busy monobrow which is also known as a unibrow.
Hirsutism
Mostly mistaken for hypertrichosis and hirsutism harms up to 10 percent of females. Hirsutism is a word that links to females who build coarse terminal hairs in a typical male pattern, for example, chin and chest. This condition of hirsutism is produced in females due to hormonal imbalance.
Symptoms of Hypertrichosis
As it has been described before that hypertrichosis can develop during birth or later in life.
This state usually produces one of three kinds of hair:
- Vellus: the strands for these hairs are generally short are less than 1/13th of an inch long.
- They could develop on any region like soles of your feet, backs of your ears, lips, and palms, or might be on any injury marks. This state of the vellus might be pigmented or non-pigmented.
- Lanugo: this kind of hair is very soft and fragile. This hair feels like newborn baby hair. It usually has no color. Many of the babies shed their lanugo within some days after the birth. But if you have hypertrichosis present, lanugo might stay till it gets treated or removed through laser therapy.
- Terminal: under this, the hair is long and dense and usually dark in color.
Females with hirsutism grow stiff, rigid, dark hair on the body parts like the face, chest, and back.
Another general sign of hypertrichosis is an issue that occurs with your gums and teeth. Some teeth might be missing, or your gums might get swelled.
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Causes of this condition
The root cause for the occurrence of the state hypertrichosis is not correctly recognized. However, there is a kind of ailment that implies running in families.
Congenital hypertrichosis might be caused due to the reactivation of hormones that makes hair grow. These are the genes that cause overly hair growth at the early stage in males. But still, no prime cause has been known for this state. This hair growth starts when the baby is inside the womb.
Having hypotrichosis might have variant sources. when hair growth is seen everywhere or in patches, possible reasons holds:
- porphyria cutanea tarda is a condition under which your skin becomes sensitive against light.
- malnutrition
- anorexia nervosa is a condition that occurs due to poor diet, also known as an eating disorder.
- cancer
- some medications like androgenic steroids, the medicine minoxidil, and cyclosporine
hypertrichosis happens at specific places on your body can boost from:
- A severe skin problem causes itchiness and constant rubbing and scratching. It forms a patch on the skin.
- Use of a plaster cast for some time.
- Increased vascularity is a body-building tactic to build blood vessels near the surface of the skin.
Prevalence of Hypertrichosis
Hypotrichosis, as the cause is unknown. It is also a scarce condition. For example, hypertrichosis lanuginosa is a severely sporadic condition found in human beings. According to the JAMA Dermatology, about 50 cases have been diagnosed yet with this sort of condition. Whereas hirsutism is much more common, harming about 7 percent of the women population in the U.S.
Treating Hypertrichosis
Hypertrichosis has no proper treatment. You can not do anything to stop the congenital kind of disease. Some of the acquired hypertrichosis chances get less by evading the intake of some medications, such as minoxidil.
Treating hypertrichosis holds the extracting of hair in a sort of short-term way. They comprise of:
- shaving
- chemical epilation
- waxing
- plucking
- hair bleaching
All of these ways stated are short-term remedies. They also create some risk of causing painful and frustrating skin itching. Moreover, in some regions of the body, these methods are not done quickly.
If you are seeking long-lasting methods, these methods involve electrolysis and laser surgery. Electrolysis is the damaging of the person’s hair follicles with electrical charges. On the other side, laser surgery includes using specific laser light. It is used on several hairs at one time. Hair loss could be for the long term after these treatments are done. However, you might require some sittings to finish the task.
