A U.S. mom is on a mission to spread joy and raise awareness after her 1-year-old son was diagnosed with uncombable hair syndrome, a hair disorder she’d never heard of until last year.

The boy’s mother, Katelyn Samples, told “Good Morning America” that a stranger messaged her last summer on Instagram after seeing a photo of her youngest son, Locklan Samples, and asked if he had been diagnosed with uncombable hair syndrome.

“At first, you see ‘syndrome’ and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ like is something wrong with my baby? Is he in pain or something?” Samples recalled.

Uncombable hair syndrome is a rare hair disorder and a genetic condition that usually affects children at 3 years old or younger, although there have been reports of cases in children up to age 12.

According to Carol Cheng, a pediatric dermatologist at UCLA Health, hair of children with uncombable hair syndrome, also called spun glass hair, can grow in all directions, be straw-colored, have a dull texture and be hard to manage.

A specialist can diagnose uncombable hair syndrome through a genetic test and an examination of a hair clipping through electron microscopy, a process that uses a special type of microscope.

“When you look under that microscope, you can see that instead of having hair that is cylinder shape, the shaft of the hair is actually more in a triangular shape,” Cheng explained. “Within the triangle, there are these little grooves that go up and down the long axis of the hair shaft so that’s why it makes it really uncombable.”

There are no treatments for uncombable hair syndrome and the hair abnormalities tend to resolve themselves as time goes on. “Interestingly, this condition does get better with age. So after puberty or into adulthood, typically the hair condition gets better,” Cheng noted. “It doesn’t stay with them for their entire life.”

Samples said she can still comb Locklan’s hair but she doesn’t need to do so often, and overall, it’s relatively low maintenance. “It can get matted easily. It is very fragile. … It can get tangled and I do have to be careful,” she said. “That would be an example of a time I actually would wash it because I very rarely wash his hair. It doesn’t really get greasy.”

The mother of two said other people have been very curious about Locklan’s hair. “We get a lot of comments about him looking like a dandelion and that’s actually a very accurate description of appearance and how it feels,” Samples said. “His hair is extremely soft, like a little baby chick. People will ask to touch it, which is fine with us.”

Samples has been sharing Locklan’s story and photos on Instagram since his diagnosis. In a post from October, she wrote that she wanted to do so in part “to spread some joy on the internet!”

“Our biggest message is to celebrate what makes you stand out and what makes you different and hopefully bring awareness to this uncombable hair syndrome and hopefully, we can get more information,” Samples said. “If you think your kid might have it, go inquire and ask questions and be your child’s advocate.”(SD-Agencies)