Fuzz fuss

Hair loss caused by the auto-immune disease alopecia can now be treated with a new drug, ritlecitinib, available in the United Kingdom.

In alopecia, the immune system mistakenly attacks hair follicles, causing the hair to fall out. Ritlecitinib suppresses the immune system to stop hair loss. In clinical trials of the drug, hair regrew in 80 percent of the scalp within 24 weeks, BBC reports.

There are other hair loss remedies like the topical minoxidil which exceeded expectations for some caregivers and parents with alopecia in Spain.

Tufty hair grew across the back, legs and face, and in extreme cases made them resemble a Wookiee, the hairy character in the hit sci-fi movie “Star Wars.”

The hairy overgrowth, however, was not in the users but in their babies.

The Navarra Pharmacovigilance Center reported 11 cases of babies afflicted with werewolf syndrome for being hairy and attributed the condition called hypertrichosis to their caregivers or parents who used topical minoxidil for their hair loss problem.

Investigators believe that topical five-percent minoxidil used by the infants’ parents or caregivers was absorbed by the babies either topically or orally, the report found, according to New York Post (NYP).

“Babies have sensitive skin and an immature immune system which can suffer from allergic and extreme reactions when exposed to something strong and foreign,” The Health Site (THS) reports.

“The babies stopped growing excessive hair when their exposure to the medication stopped,” according to THS.