China’s village of long-haired ladies
The women of this tiny Chinese village take great pride in their long, lustrous locks
IMAGINE being allowed to have your hair cut only once in your life. No experimental bobs, no funky shaves, no fancy feathering – just one chop when you turn 18. That’s the reality for the Rapunzel-like women of the ancient settlement of Huanglo in China.
The Red Yao women, so called because of their distinctive embroidered red clothing, lovingly tend their magnificent manes, taking special care to keep it healthy, strong and free of grey well into old age.
Most of the women’s hair hangs down to their ankles, with 60 members of the village having tresses longer than a metre. One woman’s hair is a staggering 2,1-m long.
When a girl turns 18 she’s given the only haircut she’ll ever be permitted to have. The lopped-off locks are handed to the girl’s grandmother to be made into a decorative headpiece.
The young woman, now sporting an ear-length do, must at this point start looking for a husband. Once she’s landed her man, the hair is given as a gift to the groom, and later becomes a part of his wife’s everyday hairdo.
In fact Red Yao women might have been the first people to use hair extensions. Each woman’s hair is made of three bunches: the hair on her head and the hair that was chopped off at 18 plus any hair that falls out, which is lovingly collected and gathered into a third bunch.
Together they form the distinctive locks that are then wound up and wrapped tray-like around the head.
The various hairstyles represent the social status of the bearer. If the hair is simply wrapped around her head, it means she’s married but has no children. A small bun at the front indicates she’s
married with children, while a scarf wound around her head indicates she’s in the market for a man.
HAIR is considered so sacred to the Red Yao women that until 30 years ago no one apart from a woman’s husband was permitted to lay eyes on her luscious locks – and then only on their wedding day.
If a man were to stumble upon a woman with her hair on display he’d be forced to spend three years with her family as their son-in-law.
Fortunately this bizarre tradition was abandoned in 1987 when the residents of “Long Hair Village”, as Huanglo is known in China, wised up to the fact the women’s striking hair was a lucrative tourist attraction. The 2 000-year-old settlement has even received a certification from Guinness World Records as being the “world’s longest hair village”. So what’s the secret to the women’s lustrous crowning glory? They use a special shampoo made of fermented rice water – the milky coloured liquid left over from rinsing or boiling rice – to which they add fruit peels and tea seeds, which are said to keep the roots strong and the strands nourished and free from grey. And the women never wash their hair in hot water. The village is home to 82 households and around 600 villagers. As well as their usual day jobs the women sing and perform in groups a few times a day, showing off their hair. Apparently they believe their hair brings them longevity, wealth and fo r tune . The longer the locks, the more fortunate you’ll be. And this seems to be true when you consider that a woman can expect to earn $300 (R3 750) a day dancing and singing for tourists in high season. Not a bad hair day, that.