Larry & Danny......

'Wolfman' Larry Gomez

Severe Hypertrichosis is quite rare, almost certainly due to unknown genetic defects, and can result in excessive or animal-like hair on both face and body.

In 1982, an American geneticist called Frank Greenberg of the Baylor College of Medicine discovered a Mexican family with a rare genetic mutation that causes fur like hair to grow all over their bodies. The family was segregated from Mexican society; they were forced to hide in their home in Loreto's town, and can only obtain work in the circus. All the 32 members in the Aceves family have this disease. They live in a mountain town named Zacatecas.

Victor "Danny" Ramos and Gabriel "Larry" Ramos are the most famous of the family. These brothers have excessive hair on their face and chest, almost looking like fur — more than 95% of their body is covered with hair. The only visible place they do not have this hair is around their eyes, mouth, and upper ears and hands.

In Larry & Danny’s family, there are at least five generations of people with ‘Hypertrichosis’ — about 20 affected persons are there in the family including men and women who are suffering with this rare genetic disorder of excessive facial and torso hair. The women are covered with a light-to-medium coat of hair while the men of the family have thick hair on approximately 98% of their body apart from their hands and feet.

Geneticist Dr. Luis Figuera, an expert in hypertrichosis at Mexico's Center for Biomedical Research, has studied people with the condition for more than 20 years. As per Dr. Figuera, Danny's grandmother does not have hypertrichosis, but she carries the mutation and passed it on to her children.

Danny's brother, Larry, born as Gabriel Ramos Gomz in Maxico but took his new name from a 1941 horror film ‘The Wolf Man’, had a son — Michael, now 11, who doesn’t have hypertrichosis whereas Danny passed this mutated gene on to his 7 yrs old daughter — Daniela.

Danny's cousins Lili and Carla, his sister Jamie and his daughter Daniela all have varying degrees of hypertrichosis.