Ohio’s Hoss turning into one big hairball
Guinness names creation world’s largest
Ohio now has one new claim to fame: home to the world’s largest ball of human hair. ● Hoss the Hairball, the furry 225-pound creation of Cambridgebased hairstylist Steve Warden, was named the world’s largest human hairball by the Guinness Book of World Records in mid-december. ● The previous record-holder was a 167-pound ball of human hair created by Henry Coffer, a barber from Charleston, Missouri, who claimed the title in 2008. Coffer, who was 77, had collected his clients’ hair for more than 50 years. ● Holding that title, however, was never Warden’s goal in crafting this giant ball of hair, he said.
It all started back in 2013, after Warden’s It or Not! to donate his creation when Hoss youngest child went off to college. Warden’s four weighed 97 pounds. children had begged him for years to make a hair Since then, Hoss has been a star of Ripley’s Believe ball big enough to be featured in a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! roadshows, where fans of all that is It or Not! book. odd or rare can have some of their hair snipped
So Warden started collecting his clients’ hair at and added to Hoss. Because of Hoss’ crowdsourcing his Guernsey County salon, Blockers. He installed nature, its exterior is an ever-changing a chute in the floor connected to a trash can in the mess of different colors and textures. salon’s basement. Once he finished a cut, Warden Hoss also now has buggy blue eyes, a large would sweep their hair into the chute for his future nose, toothy grin, arms, cow-printed legs and a endeavors. huge cowboy hat (you might say he resembles a
None of his clients were bothered by the collection, hairy Mr. Potato Head). he said. Most were just curious. “They are in love with this hair ball,” Warden
Warden constructed the oddity by wadding up said. “It’s become quite interactive.” balls of hair, using a combination of liquid glue, More than 3,000 people have since contributed spray adhesive and hairspray to make it stick. He to Hoss’ weight, according Susie Storey, a named the hairball Hoss after Dan Blocker’s character spokeswoman with the International Association from the TV Western “Bonanza.” of Amusement Parks and Attractions.
“He’s made of human DNA, so he needed a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! made a big push to name,” Warden said.
In 2018, Warden reached out to Ripley’s Believe
make Hoss a world record holder this fall.
In November, it launched the “Shave the Beard and Make it Weird!” campaign during the IAAPA Expo 2021 in Orlando. Ripley’s Believe It or Not! President Jim Pattison Jr. shaved his pandemic beard during the expo and added it to Hoss.
A majority of Hoss’ record-setting weight came from haircuts at Floyd’s 99 Barbershops, a chain of Florida barbershops as well as donated hair that Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! solicited from people worldwide.
Warden said he would open up envelopes and glue whatever hair was inside to Hoss.
The campaign not only helped add to Hoss’ size, but it was also a fundraiser. Warden said Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! raised more than $40,000 for Give Kids The World Village –– an 89-acre nonprofit resort in Central Florida that provides critically ill children and their families with weeklong vacations at no cost.
Warden said Hoss will continue to travel the country on Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! roadshows and exhibitions. He said there are exciting plans for Hoss’ future and, of course, it will keep growing.
Hoss will ring in the new year by being “dropped” on a forklift during a Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Facebook Live event in Florida Friday just before
midnight.
Hoss is one of many other weird New Year’s Eve drops happening around the country, including a car-sized foam potato in Boise, Idaho; a giant wedge of Sartori cheese in Plymouth, Wisconsin; and a taxidermy possum named Spencer in Tallapoosa, Georgia.
shendrix@dispatch.com @sheridan120