Female members of the Yao ethnic group in China’s Guangxi province only ever cut their hair once in their lives usually before they marry, reports the People’s Daily Online.
According to sources, the Yao tribe dates back some 2,000 years. There are 600 members of the tribe in the total made up of 78 families. Most of the women’s hair hangs down to their ankles with 60 members of the tribe with hair longer than three feet. The longest hair in the village is seven feet long.
According to sources, a secret has been passed down by generation to generation for local women keep their long locks healthy and shiny. Villagers keep the water they use to wash glutinous rice, then wash their hair with it.
Women of this village do not cut our hair from birth. They only cut it once when they reach the age of 18, as part of a coming of age ceremony which signifies that the girl is now an adult and can marry.
The hair cut off at the ceremony is not to be thrown away, but preserved. After marriage and childbirth, this section of the hair is weaved and worn in the form of a hairpin as a distinction between married and unmarried women.’