Grandmother Rapunzel Edit
amazing 168cm long hair

Jean Burgess, a 70 year old grandmother from Kent, UK has amassed an incredible 168cm worth of hair after vowing to never cut it again when she was 15.

Jean was stimulated into action by a photograph of her with short, sensible hair beside a lily of the valley her father was helping to grow for use in the Queen’s coronation bouquet in 1953. “I hated those pictures of me when I was 15 so much. I had to have my hair short for school and I felt like a boy. My father was a gardener in the royal nursery, so having my picture taken with the flowers being grown especially for the Queen’s bouquet was an incredible honour. I just loathed my hair in the pictures so much I didn’t want to show anybody. That’s why, from then on, I vowed to grow it. When I got married at 20 years old it was past my shoulders and by 30 it was hitting the floor”.

It takes 2 hours to comb, 45 minutes to wash and 24 hours to drip dry, so it’s no surprise she keeps it in a bun and only lets it down for special occasions.

Mrs Burgess, a divorcee with five children aged between 45 and 31, said she almost gave it the chop once. “With five children it was a pain and I remember grabbing my ponytail in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other and was going to chop it all off. But I saw how long it was and couldn’t bring myself to do it. Since then I’ve worn it in a tight bun and I only take it down twice a year to give it a wash with baby shampoo.’‘