Smoking promoted hair growth for this Austrian man — but not where you would expect!

We all know smoking is bad for you. But if the cancer, constant breathlessness, wrinkly skin, terrible sleep and erectile dysfunction isn’t enough to deter you, here's a new one to add to the list: hair growing inside your throat. Yes, you read that right. A 52-year-old Austrian man found himself in this bizarre predicament, as detailed in a recent medical report.

Our mystery hair-man was a dedicated pack-a-day smoker for nearly two decades. In 2007, he began to experience a hoarse voice, difficulty breathing, and a chronic cough. Naturally, he went to the doctor. What they discovered during a bronchoscopy was something out of a medical horror movie: inflammation and hairs growing in his throat.
A bad hair day
This condition, aptly named endotracheal hair growth, has a backstory that’s just as strange. When he was 10, our man nearly drowned and needed a tracheotomy. To fix the hole in his throat, surgeons used skin and cartilage from his ear. Fast forward a few decades, and this grafted tissue decided it wanted to grow hair, thanks to his smoking habit.

For 14 long years, this unfortunate fellow had to visit the hospital annually to have 2-inch-long hairs plucked from his throat. Some even grew through his voice box and into his mouth — an involuntary and unwelcome attempt at a throat beard. Each year, doctors pulled out the hairs and dosed him with antibiotics to tackle the bacteria that came along for the ride.
Tearing the hair out (finally)
The hairy saga continued until 2022 when our protagonist finally quit smoking. This gave the doctors a chance to perform an endoscopic argon plasma coagulation, essentially giving the hairs' roots a good zap with some high-tech plasma burning. A follow-up session the next year sealed the deal, ending the hair-raising ordeal.

Endotracheal hair growth is a rare condition — so rare that this was only the second documented case. Doctors think the chronic inflammation caused by smoking could be the culprit, possibly turning stem cells into hair follicles in a twisted biological plot twist.

So, the next time you think about lighting up, remember: it’s not just your lungs and heart at risk. You could end up with an unwanted and very inconvenient internal hair growth. If cancer, heart disease, and lung problems aren’t enough to make you quit, maybe the thought of sprouting a throat beard will.

The findings of this case study have been published in the American Journal of Case Reports and can be accessed here.