“I’d never heard of it,” the mother, 33-year-old Katelyn Samples of Roswell, Georgia, told the The Washington Post in an interview. “I kind of freaked out.” Uncombable hair syndrome (UHS), a condition characterized by dry, frizzy hair that can’t be brushed flat, has been identified in only about 100 people, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). It typically develops between infancy and age 3, but sometimes appears in children as old as 12. Kids with UHS usually have light blond or silvery hair that sticks up from the scalp in all directions. These strands also have an unusually reflective texture that gives the hair a glistening sheen, according to the NIH. This is an apt description of the head of hair on 16-month-old Locklan Samples, his mother told The Washington Post. Each strand of Locklan’s hair has a crimp in it, Katelyn Samples told the Post. “It can’t be tamed,” she said. “Nothing can fix it.” Samples said she took Locklan to his pediatrician, who wasn’t familiar with UHS, and then followed up with a specialist. She said Locklan’s diagnosis of UHS was confirmed after a pathologist examined his hair samples under a microscope. Besides the distinctive hair color, texture, and growth pattern evident in Locklan’s baby pictures, UHS hair strands have characteristics that are invisible to the naked eye. Under a microscope, cross-sections of hair show a unique triangular or kidney shape, according to the NIH. Parents who suspect this diagnosis should take children to a dermatologist, the NIH advises. Scientists suspect that UHS is inherited, and there are several genetic mutations that may play a role in the development of this condition, according to the NIH. It can appear to skip generations, because some individuals with UHS have no visible signs of the condition, the NIH notes. Sometimes when children without any known family history of UHS get diagnosed, scientists discover telltale signs of the condition in relatives’ hair samples examined under a microscope. The good news for Locklan is that this rare condition doesn’t cause pain, or impact other parts of the body, according to the NIH. Often, the condition clears up on its own before adolescence. There’s no known cure, however. The NIH advises people to use gentle hair products including soft bristle brushes and lots of conditioner, and to avoid harsh chemical treatments and excessive heat from blow drying. Since Locklan got his diagnosis, his parents set him up with an Instagram account: uncombable_locks. His mother says her goal with the account is to embrace what makes her son different, encourage others who might have UHS to seek a diagnosis, and to share information she wish she’d known before Locklan got diagnosed, according to the Post. “Because there’s not a lot of confirmed diagnosis out there, there’s in turn not a lot of information,” Samples said.
