13-year-old 'wolf boy' becomes popular local celebrity in India

A determined 13-year-old boy named Lalit Patidar in central India earned the nickname ''wolf boy'' due to having the rare condition hypertrichosis, which caused his whole face to grow thick hair.

Lalit, who hails from Nandleta village of Ratlam district in Madhya Pradesh state, is a younger son of his family with five sisters and attends the local school at an eighth-grade equivalent level.

According to Lalit, students at first called him "wolf" and other nicknames, but slowly they all became friends and now he can be seen playing sports and chatting with friends. Lalit proudly says that he wants to become a police officer.

Lalit's father Bankat Patidar said he was like this from birth and four months later hey consulted doctors but were told at the time that the disease is incurable.

Typically, hypertrichosis is hereditary, but none of Lalit's relatives has the condition. When he first went to school, all the other students were puzzled, but now all have gotten used to it and girls like to take selfies with him.

The condition causes his hair to grow heavily on his face and on other, normally bare, parts of the body. Lalit says he faces problem breathing due to the long hair on his face, as well as getting hair in his mouth while eating, meaning he regularly has to trim his face.

According to Bankat Patidar: "Local residents and relatives have long been accustomed to the hairy boy, but strangers and children sometimes get scared while seeing him for the first time."