The Chinese village populated by real-life Rapunzels

All women (and some men) want to grow long, shiny hair, which is seen as the staple of sexiness and health. The struggle is real for them, as growing long hair requires a lot of patience and hair care. You need to make sure you take proper care of your tresses, in order for them to grow healthy. From a medical point of view, there are no ways to grow hair faster, but only ways to grow healthy strands. Among all the brushing, protein diets, vitamins hair serums and mineral hair masks, you probably spend hours imagining yourself as Rapunzel. Well, here is something for you: in China there is an entire village of Rapunzels!

Guangxi province where fairy tales are real life

In the province of Guangxi, deep in the Chinese mountains, women of the Huangluo village don’t know anything about the billion dollar hair care industry, even if their hair is their most prized item. How is this possible?

The village where the Yao minority lives, holds the record, acknowledged by Guinness World Book of Records, of the “World’s Longest Hair Village”. All women in the village have amazing 2 meters/ 6.8 feet long, healthy, strong and black hair, which remains black well into their old age.

What is their secret? They use fermented rice water to wash their hair.

Fermented rice water could be the secret for growing long and strong hair?

Fermented rice water is the secret ingredient which allows Red Yao Huangluo Rapunzels to prevent hair loss and maintain their hair strong and healthy. The rice water, which is the liquid left from the boiling of rice, had been used since ancient times by imperial women in Asia. For the population of this area, hair is sacred no one was allowed to look at a woman’s hair, except her husband and kids. If someone dared to break this rule was supposed to spend three years with the woman, as her husband. And there was no way to say “No!”. This tradition was abolished in the 1980s, when the village became a popular tourist attraction. When this happened, the prophecy which says the longer the hair, the longer the life of the woman and bigger the fortune.

One hair cut for life

Women of Huangluo do cut their hair – when they reach their 18^th birthday, they are given a haircut. The long strands are given to the girl’s grandmother, who turns it into a headpiece. When the girl marries, the headpiece is given to the groom. Later on, it becomes part of the woman’s daily hairdo. Speaking of hairdos, women of Huangluo show their marital status via their hairdos. When a girl is looking for a husband, she covers her hair under a scarf; if she is married, she wraps her hair around her head; if she is is married and has kids, she makes a front bun and a hair wrap.

All this hair wonder, which is now exposed in special shows by married women, seems to be due to the wonderful fermented rice water. And there are some good reasons to believe these women: rice water is rich in vitamin E, antioxidants and minerals, which is the same mix, us, regular mortals, struggle to get from cosmetic products. The difference is their rice water is 100% natural.

Moreover, Red Yao women claim they never see a gray hair well into their 80s! Now I don’t know about you, but I am definitely trying this rice water “shampoo”.