Woolly hair syndrome

Woolly hair syndrome is a condition affecting a small percentage of persons of Caucasian and Asian heritage. It is characterized by extremely frizzy and wiry hair that looks almost woolly in appearance. In some cases, persons with distant and unapparent African ancestry may be misdiagnosed as having woolly hair.

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Woolly hair syndrome is a rare abnormality of the typical structure of European and Asian scalp hair. This hair is either present at birth, or appears during the first months of life. The curls, with an average diameter of 0.5cm, lie closely together and usually make the hair difficult to comb. In addition, the hair may be more fragile than usual. The syndrome usually begins to subside in adulthood, when wavy hair often takes the place of woolly hair.

Wooly hair syndrome was first observed in a European family in 1907 by Gossage. The difference between the often soft, woolly, Afro textured hair and the extremely frizzy and wiry hair found in non-blacks with the syndrome is that black hair lies typically separate and is tightly coiled or spiraled, while the curls of the woolly hair syndrome tend to merge. Hair of persons afflicted with this syndrome covers only portions of the skull.