The woolly-headed boy

Eighteenth-century English society was captivated by oddities of all kinds -- albinos, giants, cats with retractable tails, etc. Here's a print from 1793 of "The Woolly-Headed Boy." Who he was and why his hair appears to be a clump of sheep's wool are unspecified. From the Oxford Digital Library.

UPDATE!! In a 2003 article for Orphanet Encyclopedia, Otberg and Blume-Peytavi (PDF) write:

Wooly hair is a rare congenital abnormality of structure of scalp hair. It is marked by extreme kinkiness of hair in Caucasians. Woolly hair is either already present at birth or appears in the first months of life. The curls, wih an average diameter of 0.5 cm. , lie closely together and usually make the hair difficult to comb; in addition, the hair may be more fragile than usual.

Thanks JW