Everyone thought Bence was born with Albinism. Albinism is a rare disorder that affects 5 in every 100,000 people. It is a congenital disorder that causes a partial or complete lack of melanin pigment.
A Beautiful Newborn Baby
Albinism affects the appearance of a person's skin, eyes, hair, and more. Those with low or no pigment might develop white hair, white skin, and light eyes. When Bence was born with stark white hair, he was first thought to be afflicted with Albinism…
Inexplicable White Hair
The only catch was that Bence exhibited only some, but not all, of the symptoms. He had the hair, but that was it. What about the pale eyes and fair skin associated with albinism? There were important missing signs.
Albinism Explored
Born in Hungary, Bence had a full head of bright white hair. After seeing his hair, doctors checked Bence's vitals, expecting to see many of the other signs of the infamous condition…
Healthy and Happy
Weirdly, every test came back showing the baby to be normal and healthy. It was then that Bence's doctors decided to take a closer look.
Signs and Symptoms
The team conducted a blood test which revealed that the baby did, in fact, carry low levels of melanin. In this way, only two of his symptoms pointed to albinism. This was not enough for a full diagnosis…
A Skin-Deep Diagnosis
There was still the problem of Bence's skin, which was not in line with an albinism diagnosis. In theory, if albinism had been his diagnosis, both his skin and hair would be stark white!
New Ideas Emerge
Other ideas explaining the newborn's hair began to surface. Doctors looked into prenatal stress and anxiety, linked to the mother's anxiety while she had carried her child…
Exploring All Options
She was growing restless. They had explored every possibility, or so they thought…
New Dead Ends
Nothing could explain the low melanin and seemingly normal pigmentation in the skin. Every idea the doctors tested came back saying that he was a healthy child.
A Sight for Sore Eyes
The boy also had light eyes, but the doctors determined they were not light enough to be linked to albinism. Sometimes, people born with albinism are born with red eyes…
Social Sourcing
Eventually, Bence's parents turned to social media to help diagnose their son. They wanted to understand how to best help their newborn but weren‘t getting any information from all the doctors they had seen. This was a task for the world wide web now…
The Search for Answers
The couple was overjoyed that all of his tests continuously came back positive, but they just wanted answers. Why was his hair so bright? Social media users weighed in…
A Lifetime of Light Hair
Some users said that the child was definitely albino and that the disorder often goes undetected. As he grew up, they believed he would begin to show more signs of the disorder. The condition is lifelong and would follow him into adulthood.
A Sign of Good Luck
In some parts of the world, albinism is considered to be a sign of good luck. People come from all over to meet them and hopefully get some luck of their own, but his parents were still unsure that this was the case for their child…
A Dangerous Disorder
In other parts of the world, being an albino is dangerous. For example, in Tanzania, albinos are persecuted or hunted. Albino children are seen as a bad omen and unlucky and are treated poorly as a result.
Albinism United
The social repercussions of being born with the condition can leave some feeling excluded and different from their communities…
Isolated in Their Own Skin
Because of the isolation albinos often feel, many countries have created support groups or conducted meet-ups for those afflicted. Whether their child had it or not, they did fear that he would be picked on…
Staying Safe
In addition to social problems and dangerous circumstances, albinos also are more vulnerable to health issues. They're more prone to problems with sight and skin since pigmentation protects these from the sun. Because of this, those diagnosed have to be constantly aware of covering their skin and eyes at all times or risk serious burns and even blindness!
Unanswered Questions
But Bence's doctors insisted he was not albino. So what was it? Other social media users said that their children were born with light white hair and that the child would likely grow out of his light locks. Even more, people said it was probably just a blonde child who would grow up with very light white hair. This didn't run in their family, however…
Bence’s Diagnosis
Eventually, it was decided that Baby Bence was completely healthy, just born with extremely light hair. Doctors pointed to people born with white streaks and patches of hair as evidence…
Patches of Pigment
Many people possess a genetic characteristic of having a white patch or streak of hair that signals a lack of pigment on that section of their scalp. For Bence, though, this affected his whole head…
Proof in Poliosis
This condition, known as Poliosis, is also linked to other conditions of pigment. These include vitiligo and piebaldism…
Verified with Vitiligo
People with vitiligo have a lack of pigment in patches of skin, rather than hair such as in Bence's case. This can leave them with pale white patches on their skin!
Swatched Skin
Piebaldism is similar to poliosis, but usually signals larger patches of pigmentation deficiency, like Bence!
A Winning Look
None of these conditions should dissuade diagnosed from pursuing their dreams. Model Winnie Harlow is known for her beautiful vitiligo skin!
Changing Society
She and other models with vitiligo have changed the way society looks at pigmentation conditions…
The End of Testing
After weeks of tests, guessing, and testing theories, it finally became clear to doctors that Bence would live a pretty healthy life with his unique light head of hair.
Bence Growing Up
However, Bence would have to get continuous skin and eye tests as he grew up, to assure doctors that they hadn't gotten his diagnosis wrong. Checking on his pale skin and eyes would make his diagnosis more concrete going forward.
An Adorable Anamoly
In the end, Bence was neither normal nor albino. He ended up being a medical rarity with a great head of white-blonde hair…
Baby Celebrity
The little guy attracts a crowd everywhere he goes and has been spotted on many news stories and broadcasts with his special locks.