A U.K. baby is turning heads because of his bouffant hair.
Junior Cox-Noon was born on July 30 at Brighton General Hospital, weighing about 10 pounds, the Daily Mail reported. At 9 weeks old, Junior has so much hair that he’s been nicknamed “Baby Bear.”
“He came out with loads of hair,” Junior’s mother, Chelsea Noon, told the Daily Mail. “I didn’t realize how much until he had his first bath.
“All the midwives and health visitors said it would fall out because baby hair usually comes out when they rub their head on the back of the cot, but he hasn’t lost any of it and it has grown.”
The 32-year-old mother of three said her weekly trips to the supermarket went from 40 minutes to about two hours because people keep stopping her to ask questions.
“When I take him with me on the weekly shop in Asda everyone does a double-take and says, ‘Oh my God, look at the baby’s hair,’ and they have to touch it,” Noon explained. “He doesn’t seem to mind and gets a little a smirk on his face.”
Noon said she has to blow-dry Junior’s hair because it would take too long naturally. She said she has no intention of cutting her baby’s hair.
“People say to me, ‘Are you going to cut it?’ but it’s too unique, so I’m going to leave it as it is,” Noon said.
Noon’s other children, 6-year-old Mitchell and 4-year-old Preston, were not born with the same amount of hair as Junior. Noon said she suffered severe heartburn while pregnant with Junior.
According to a 2007 study by Johns Hopkins University, researchers found that fetal hair growth can be linked to heartburn during pregnancy. The reason may be because high levels of estrogen, the same hormone that can influence hair growth, can cause heartburn.
Noon says Mitchell and Preston love their new little brother.
“His brothers really love him; my youngest is always running up to Junior saying, ‘I want to pinch his fat cheeks,’” Noon told the Daily Mirror. “We call him ‘Baby Bear’ because he looks like a little bear but when he’s angry he looks like a little gremlin.”
Noon added that she does not plan on having any more children.
“The pregnancy was fine, but the labor was horrible,” she recalled. “His head got stuck so they had to call the emergency people in … and I lost a liter of blood, so it was quite traumatic.
“Then obviously they weighed him and found out he was 10 pounds, and that’s probably why.”
“He’s about 13 1/2 pounds now. Usually they lose a bit, but he didn’t; he gained some,” Noon added. “But this is the last one, baby Junior; I’m not having another one — it would probably be a 12-pounder.”
