#hypertrichosis

[atchoumthecat]

"The weekend is off to a bad start. I forgot my sunglasses 😎 and the float is deflated.🫠 Hopefully, my lunch has been served"😵‍💫

**********

"Le week-end commence mal. J’ai oublié mes lunettes soleil 😎 et la bouée est dégonflée.🫠 En espérant que mon déjeuner a été servi.😵‍💫

[chimeride]

Maymaygwashi, the 228th Known One.

[maverick-werewolf]

Werewolf Fact #73 - Hypertrichosis, excessive hair growth ("werewolf syndrome"), Beauty and the Beast, and Bluebeard

Today I'll be covering something else clinical: hypertrichosis.

You may have heard of "werewolf syndrome," a condition of excessive hair growth. It isn't to be confused with clinical lycanthropy, which is something else entirely. "Werewolf syndrome" is also called hypertrichosis - and it's occasionally associated with and/or can even be derived from another condition, porphyria, that was also associated with "werewolves" throughout scholarship. Likewise, the most well-known kind of hypertrichosis that involves excessive hair growth all over the body is also often associated with gum and teeth problems; such issues could lead to unusual teeth and mouth shape.

Interestingly, however, despite a lot of modern scholars retroactively assuming that werewolf victims of the past could have suffered hypertrichosis, many of the werewolf legends in question specifically describe lycanthropy sufferers to look quite different. The legends in question are later era ones from the Early Modern period, during which time lycanthropy had become a madness and a disease under clinical and scientific supervision, very much unlike previous time periods, as I cover extensively in my book The Werewolf: Past and Future as well as other werewolf facts.

These legends describe sufferers of the werewolf curse variably to only be "hairy" when in their wolf form specifically (other than, occasionally, having long hair without mention of unusual body hair), highlighting how they were not unusually hairy in human form, or to "always [have] some hairs in the hollow of his hand" (as noted by Sabine Baring-Gould in The Book of Were-Wolves; taken from page 121 of my own edition of his work). Hypertrichosis often specifically does not have hair growth on the palms, conversely. Likewise, many legends of later time periods even specifically say that werewolves are not hairy "on the outside," but that their hair "grows inward" when they aren't in their inhuman form.

Still, scholars entertain the notion of connections that I still question to a healthy degree, so I have studied it as a result. I think it's best to simply summarize it as, the syndrome reminds people of what werewolves are meant to look like, rather than asserting that "this is why some people believed in werewolves" and the like.

Hypertrichosis is rare, and any kind of proper documentation only began perhaps around the 1600s. During this time and for a very long time after, sufferers of hypertrichosis were often called a variety of terms like "ape-men" or "wolf-men." They were considered spectacles and often were brought to noble courts like exotic animals, to entertain high society. Many were circus freaks. Not all examples are before our time, either.

But, Mav, you ask, how is this related to Beauty and the Beast and Bluebeard? Aren't those fairytales?

One famous example of someone with hypertrichosis is the one whose related image began this post: Petrus Gonsalvus, who lived from around 1537 to sometime past 1617. He was called assorted names, such as "the wild gentleman of Tenerife," "the man of the woods," and of course, "the Canarian werewolf." He lived in assorted courts throughout both Italy and France, including the court of Henry II, King of France, around 1547 - he was sent there when he was but 10 years old as a gift from a regent (Margaret of Parma) of the Netherlands. He moved about various courts over time and even married.

Much of Gonsalvus's family inherited his condition (four of his seven children), including some of his daughters. Like their father, they were often traded amongst courts as pets of a sort. Here is Madelene Gonsalvus, a portrait from 1580:

It is believed that the marriage of Petrus Gonsalvus to his wife, a woman believed to be named Catherine and a lady-in-waiting to Catherine de Medici, may have provided some inspiration for the tale of Beauty and the Beast, which was first written in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.

Beauty and the Beast may not be the only fairytale inspired by hypertrichosis, either. The tale of Bluebeard, as also discussed by Baring-Gould in his Book of Werewolves, describes Bluebeard as "His hair and moustache were light brown, and his beard was clipped to a point. This beard, which resembled no other beard" (232), similar to some elements of hypertrichosis variations, as well as mention of his gum condition: "At intervals he ground his teeth like a wild beast preparing to dash upon his prey, and then his lips became so contracted, as they were drawn in and glued, as it were, to his teeth, that their very colour was indiscernible" (233).

Sidebar: if you're interested in the story of Bluebeard and what it was based on, definitely check out Sabine Baring-Gould's The Book of Were-Wolves, as he has an unmatched documentation of it. I don't think it really has a place in a book about werewolves, but obviously I preserved his work in its original condition, so you can find it in my edition of his book, as well. It's not for the faint of heart, but it's morbidly very interesting.

So, connection to werewolves or not, it's still certain that hypertrichosis was seen as an inhuman condition. There are many examples of people who had or have the condition and records of how they were treated throughout history.

As mentioned, I have to wonder how much of this was actually associated with werewolf legends - given legends always explicitly involved transformation, which was the entire basis of it - but scholars eat this kind of thing up. In academia, everyone is always trying to come up with "new arguments" to "add to the conversation" or whatever, so we end up discussing and studying hypertrichosis alongside werewolf legends that specifically state such things weren't a part of the legends. Weird, isn't it?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the post. Until next time!

And stay tuned for news and updates on a major [werewolf] book release later this year!

If you like my blog, be sure to follow me here and elsewhere for more folklore and fiction, including books, especially on werewolves! You can also sign up for my free newsletter for monthly werewolf/vampire/folklore facts, a free story, and book previews.

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[blackbackedjackal]

this is so random I just thought you would appreciate this. ebay user vm8693 has a wolf rug for sale with that gene that causes an overgrowth of fur (i think?) 😭 they're so cute if you wanted to look at them

He does omg!!

[t0rschlusspan1k]

Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450–1516), The Crucifixion of Saint Wilgefortis (detail), c.1497, oil on panel

[abwwia]

#HERstory Alice Doherty poses with her family in a Victorian photograph, 1900s.

Alice Elizabeth Doherty (March 14, 1887 – June 13, 1933) was an American woman born with the condition hypertrichosis lanuginosa. Via Wikipedia

#AliceDoherty #Victorian #victoriaphotograph #hypertrichosis #hairyisbeautiful

[dailyunsolvedmysteries-movedd]

This is Lalit Patel. He has an extremely rare condition called Hypertrichosis, also known as werewolf syndrome. According to the media reports, the Indian teen said that people threw stones at him due to excessive hair growth and kids were scared that he would bite them. Unfortunately there is no cure for his condition. 

Only 50 known people have had this condition. 

[pmamtraveller]

PORTRAIT OF ANTONIETTA GONZALES (1595) by LAVINIA FONTANA

This strange portrait shows ANTONIETTA GONZALES, a young girl from the CANARY ISLANDS. She and her family, including her father, PETRUS GONZALES, all suffered from hypertrichosis, a rare genetic disorder that causes excessive hair growth throughout the face and body.

At the time, Hypertrichosis was thought to be a sign from GOD (as opposed to a demon curse) or a scientific curiosity. As a result, ANTOINETTE and her family were welcomed in EUROPEAN courtrooms.

FONTANA sketches the girl, no more than ten years old, with a sweet, innocent smile, looking at the viewer lovingly as she holds a piece of paper up to her chest that tells a bit about her personal history.

ANTONIETTA and her family belonged to the court of Countess ISABELLA of SORAGNA, according to the historian MERRY WEISER-HANKS. This portrait shows FONTANA’S talent for conveying a sense of gentleness to her patrons, regardless of their appearance.

It is also a portrait of a high emotional involvement, according to historian ENRICO MARIO DAL POZZOLO, and shows a close relationship between the artist and the sitter. It may be that, since female artists were a rarity in their own right at that time, the sitters shared a sense of being “outsiders”.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

This is Lalit Patel. He has an extremely rare condition called Hypertrichosis, also known as werewolf syndrome. According to the media reports, the Indian teen said that people threw stones at him due to excessive hair growth and kids were scared that he would bite them. Unfortunately there is no cure for his condition. 

Only 50 known people have had this condition. 

[batmanbeyondrocks]

People With Hypertrichosis

Credit: MODERNNOTORIETY @modernnotoriety

[atchoumthecat]

When Atchoum focuses on something, it's hard to distract him 👀 👀

*******

Quand Atchoum se concentre sur quelque chose, il est difficile de le distraire 👀 👀

[tailsdollsnewlife]

Haven't drawn Tommaso and Chiara in forever. I did a slight redesign of them since I realized they don’t really have a twin vibe(granted, they look different from each other, but they got the whole Disney baby thing going on).

[cannondisabledcharacters]

Today's disabled character of the day is Lee Geumhwa's sister from Svaha The Sixth Finger, who has polydactylism and hypertrichosis

Requested by Anon

[Image Description: Photo of Lee Jae-in playing Geumhwa's sister. She is mostly covered in shadows. She has a bald head and pure black eyes. She is wearing a dark green robe and a striped undershirt.]

[t0rschlusspan1k]

Barbara van Beck (1629 – c. 1668)

The Guardian: 'High-status' portrait of bearded woman bought by Wellcome Collection

On 15 September 1657 the diarist John Evelyn had a conversation with an intelligent, cultured German woman, dressed in the height of fashion, who played beautifully to him on the harpsichord. She also had “a most prolix beard, & mustachios, with long locks of haire growing on the very middle of her nose, exactly like an Island Dog.” The Wellcome Collection in London has acquired a remarkable portrait painted a few years before their meeting, which shows Barbara van Beck exactly as Evelyn described her: composed, dignified, wearing a beautiful and expensive low-cut grey silk dress, with a lace collar tied with a scarlet bow, and more ribbons in her hair which was, Evelyn wrote, “neatly dress’d … of a bright browne & fine as well dressed flax”. “We dont know who painted the portrait, or where, when or for whom, but the point of it is Barbara’s dignity,” Angela McShane, Wellcome’s research development manager, said. “This is a beautifully executed high-status painting. She is not portrayed as a freak as the Victorians would have described her – as I often say when lecturing, you can blame the Victorians for most things – but as a woman with great self-possession and presence, painted at a time when she would have been viewed, as Evelyn saw her, as wonderful, a natural wonder.” “There is nothing titillating about her low-cut dress either, though we might now see it that way. She is dressed is in the highest fashion of the day and contemporary viewers would have recognised that.” Samuel Pepys, Evelyn’s contemporary and friend, also met a bearded woman in London in 1668. Some historians believe it was the same person, but McShane thinks this was another woman with a different condition. The diarist described her as “a little plain woman, a Dane, her name Ursula Dyan, about 40 years old, her voice like a little girl’s, with a beard as much as any man I ever saw, as black almost and grizzly”. Evelyn had been dragged in by friends to see a Turkish tightrope walker, and was surprised to meet Barbara, whom he described as “the hairy Maid, or Woman”. He had met her 20 years earlier when she was only eight, but already being exhibited by her parents. She was born Barbara Ursler in 1629 near Augsburg in Bavaria, one of several children but the only one with the condition – unlike the famous Gonzalez family a generation earlier who were all famously hairy – and spent periods living at the French and several Italian courts. Her parents exhibited her in travelling shows, but she clearly also acquired an education. By the time Evelyn met her, she was in London for at least the second time, and had travelled widely across Europe. She spoke several languages, and as she told Evelyn, had married a Dutchman called Michael von Beck. She told him she had “one child that was not hairy, nor were any of her parents or relations”. Evelyn compared her appearance to that of an Iceland dog, a fashionable shaggy lap dog of the day. “Her very Eyebrowes were combed upward, & all her forehead as thick & even as growes on any woman’s head, neatly dress’d. There come also two locks very long out of each eare … the rest of her body not so hairy yet exceedingly long in comparison, armes, neck, breast & back … & for the rest very well shaped, plaied well on the Harpsichord.” McShane said Evelyn’s description of the meeting was significant. “They had a proper conversation, he didn’t just stare at her. There is nothing of the cheap sideshow about it. This is an elegant entertainment for aristocrats.” [...]

[dermexpertise]

Excessive hair growth can significantly impact wellbeing. Causes range from medications to hormonal disorders like PCOS. Careful history and exam are critical to identify any underlying condition requiring treatment.

For hirsutism, antiandrogens or insulin sensitizers may be indicated along with hair removal methods. Laser treatments offer longer-term reduction but require multiple sessions. More affordable at-home options include shaving, waxing, bleaching, plucking, depilatories.

What works best depends on the location, type and amount of hair, and patient preferences. Combination therapy is often most effective. Seek expert guidance from dermatologists like Dr. Aria Moradkhani of DermExpertise on customizing a hair removal plan for your needs.

#hirsutism #hypertrichosis #hairremoval #skincare #dermatology

#DrAriaMoradkhani #DermExpertise

[morbidology]

Stephan Bibrowski, also known as "Lionel the Lion-Faced Man," was born in 1890 in Poland with a rare condition called hypertrichosis, which caused his body and face to be covered in thick hair. His mother believed that his condition was caused by witnessing his father being attacked by a lion before his birth. She gave him away shortly after he was born.

By the time he was four, Bibrowski had been discovered by a German showman and began performing in sideshows across Europe. Eventually, he moved to the United States, where he gained fame in the circus world, particularly with Barnum & Bailey Circus. Bibrowski was known to be gentle, intelligent, and well-spoken, often surprising audiences with his fluency in multiple languages and his polite demeanor.

After a successful career, Bibrowski returned to Europe in the 1930s, where he lived quietly until his death in 1932.