Little girl whose frizz proves Uncombable Hair Syndrome exists
... NOT THAT BORIS HAS ANY EXCUSE!
YOU might think it’s simply an excuse bandied about by lazy types who can’t be bothered to tame their unruly locks. But as this remarkable little girl shows, there really is such a thing as Uncombable Hair Syndrome.
Lyla-Grace Barlow’s frizzy look is the result of an extremely rare medical condition. There are only around 100 cases worldwide, while previous sufferers include Albert Einstein.
The condition is caused by a gene mutation, which means Lyla’s hair follicles are heart-shaped rather than round.
Parents Alex and Mark Barlow, from Derby, have tried countless products to manage the five-year-old’s hair but none has worked.
Mrs Barlow, 28, said: ‘When Lyla was little, her hair would stand up like Sonic The Hedgehog. It’s so hard to get a brush through it and she cries when I try.’
She added: ‘One hairdresser said to me, “Have you bleached her hair? I have never seen hair like this – I don’t know what to do with it.” When we go swimming it goes like a Barbie doll’s hair – all wiry and coarse.’
German scientists analysed Lyla’s DNA and confirmed that she suffers from Uncombable Hair Syndrome.
Both parents passed the mutated gene on to Lyla but the couple’s other children – Emilia, seven, and Nancy-Rose, two – are not affected.
Mrs Barlow said: ‘We’ve been told it’s the same condition that Albert Einstein had. We dressed Lyla up as him for Halloween one year. There can’t be many kids who can pull Einstein off with their real hair.’
Professor Regina Betz, of the Institute of Human Genetics in Bonn, who has researched the condition for four years, said: ‘Usually children have dry and frizzy hair and some parents say it’s uncombable. There are 100 cases around the world but there may be more.’
The rarity of the condition makes it unlikely that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is a sufferer – so he could brush his unruly blond mop should he ever choose to.