Riga, Latvia (BBN) – A fairy-tale fan inspired by Rapunzel now has a 90 inch-long mane after growing her hair for two decades.
Brunette Aliia Nasyrova, 27, who is from Russia but now lives in Latvia, says her impressive locks weigh around 2kg – the same as her pet cat – and take an hour to comb and a full day to air dry, reports the Daily Mail.
Aliia’s husband Ivan Balaban is so used to his wife’s lengthy locks he says he thinks of it as a ‘member of the family’ – and takes care to leave plenty of space for her braid in their bed.
Aliia admits the weight of her high-maintenance hair places some strain on her neck.
‘My hair is so heavy, I would compare it to the weight of my cat,’ said the 27-year-old, who was born in Samara in Russia.
And while her massive mane attracts stares when the couple are out and about, her husband says he loves it and is proud of her for refusing to cut it off.
‘I am always cuddling up the wall [when in bed] to give more space for hair, so there is no way I can damage it accidentally, mix them up or harm it any other way,’ he said.
‘I always talk to the braid respectfully.
Sometimes I ask it to move a bit.’
Ivan also admits that the couple even have to schedule their holidays around Aliia’s haircare needs.
‘When we are going away to somewhere we always plan the entire day for it since we understand that otherwise we will lose one day from our vacation and we will have to sit inside at home,’ he said.
Aliia says she was inspired to start growing her hair by the female characters in fairy tales like Rapunzel – whose hair was so long that a prince used it to climb up it to rescue her from a witch’s castle.
‘I started to grow my hair because since childhood I liked long hair very much.
And I was always attracted by long hair heroines from fairy tales,’ she said.
As an adult, she’s careful to braid her hair before leaving the house to prevent any mishaps.
‘Since my hair is longer than my height, sometimes I step on it at home.
And outside I never go out with flowing hair,’ she said.
Aliia regularly posts snaps of her mane on Instagram, but while she and her husband love the look, some online aren’t so enamoured.
‘I often receive messages from people who don’t like the length of my hair or my hair itself, but I do not react to it,’ she said.
‘Some people write “cut it, sell it or get rid of it”.’
Aliia, who trims her hair once a month to get rid of any split ends, is able to keep her haircare costs to a minimum as she gets sent a lot of free products.
And her worst experience with her mane was when she got chewing gum stuck in it as a child.
‘Once in my childhood when I was in theatre someone left gum in my hair, it was a tragedy,’ she said.
‘I had to cut out a clump of hair to get rid of this gum, because it was very difficult.’
Despite the challenges of life with ultra-long hair, Aliia has no plans to chop her flowing locks any time soon.
‘I don’t have a dream to get into the Guinness World Record Book since I believe the current registered record for longest hair is more than five metres – but I think I have longest hair in Latvia.’
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