Thai Girl Sets World's Hairiest Child Record

Credit: guinnessworldrecords.com
Supatra "Nat" Sasuphan was diagnosed with hypertrichosis, or "werewolf syndrome." (Image credit: guinnessworldrecords.com)

A young Thai girl with a rare genetic condition that causes her to have thick hair over most of her body has set a new Guinness World Record as the hairiest child.

Supatra "Nat" Sasuphan was born with hypertrichosis, which causes excessive hairiness and is sometimes referred to as "werewolf syndrome." The 11-year-old girl's father contacted Guinness World Record staff, requesting that they consider her for the title of hairiest child.

Guinness World Record judges evaluated Sasuphan's body hair using the Ferriman Gallwey method, which consists of measuring the amount of hair on nine different parts of the body – the upper lip, chin, chest, back, abdomen, arm, forearm, thigh, and lower leg.

After assessing Sasuphan, the judges crowned her with the world's hairiest child title on the GWR's Italian TV show, "Lo Show dei Record."

"Being hairy makes me special," Sasuphan told GWR. "This is the happiest day of my life!"

This article was provided by Life's Little Mysteries , a sister site to LiveScience.com.

Remy Melina was a staff writer for Live Science from 2010 to 2012. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication from Hofstra University where she graduated with honors.