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The Longest Dreadlocks
Monday, October 27, 2008 at 2:50AM 
Asha Mandela, 46, is going for the Guinness World Records. Her hair, or more precisely her dreadlocks, is her pride. She has been growing them for 20 years. They are longer than she is tall. Mandela has submitted her hair to Guinness World Records as the Longest Dreadlocks, the first entry in a new category.
In order to qualify for this category Mandela had to have her three longest locks measured and verified by witnesses. One such witness was Ryan Spinella, executive assistant to Longwood's city administrator. He watched the unfurling and measuring of Mandela's hair.
"I couldn't say what to compare it with. Just a lot of hair," Spinella said. "You don't believe it until you measure it, really."
Her longest dreadlock was measured at 8ft 9ins - it would have been 11 inches longer if she had not accidentally stepped on it and broken off the piece that she still carries around in her purse. In fact her dreadlocks is longer than the tallest man in the world - Leonid Stadnik, who is 8ft 2ins tall.
Asha Mandela of Davenport, Polk County, Fl. started growing her dreadlocks 20 years ago when she decided that she would no longer use chemical in her hair. Mandela, who is originally from Trinidad but was living in Brooklyn at the time, shaved all the hair off her head. When it started to grow back she began corkscrewing it into curls that in turn were twisted together into dreadlocks.
Mandela is really proud of her hair but there is one person who is no fan - her own mother. As her dreadlocks started to grow she sent a picture to her mother. Her mother told her not to send anymore pictures, complaining that Mandela was spoiling her hair:
'I took such good care of your nice curly hair, and this is what you are doing with it?'
Nevertheless Mandela is pleased with her hair. She calls it her baby, comparing it to raising a child from infancy to 20 years old. But caring for almost 9ft of hair can be burdensome. It takes one bottle of shampoo and one bottle of conditioner every time she washes her hair. She started off by washing it 3 times a week but because of the time and energy involved she now only does it once a week.
She wrings out the water as you would a wet beach towel. When the days are hot, and she takes it out by the pool in the backyard, it takes two hours to dry. When it's humid and cloudy or cool outside, it might take all day for her wet hair to lose its dampness.
It may take a few weeks for certification from Guinness World Records. Afterwards Mandela will then have to defend her title against all the unknown contenders with dreadlocks who would just love to take the title away from her. Guess who she fears the most - the Rastafarians of Jamaica.
Asha Mandela, Dreadlocks, Guinness World Records, Rastafarians in Our World, Women, news, odd
Reader Comments (12)
i have seen peeps with locks a lot longer than that...try the chinese man online...and the sadhu religion they have indians with locks way longer than hers
My mom said the same exact thing to me.
Way to go with the longest dreadlocks!
My locks are about 5 1/2 feet... I am 3 feet tall...it has been longer, but it breaks off.
No one has longer locks than the Sadhu, some with over 25 feet of locks...
sorry Asha...
LOL! I am 5 feet tall!
Would you happen to have Asha's e mail contact? I would like to ask her questions.
so many ignorant sites full of lies the longest dreadlock is over 40 feet (measured at 38 feet several years ago) my dreads are as long as that womans in india its not uncommonn for dreads to grow past 20 feet
http://dreadlockforums.ning.com/ new site dedicated to the truth of dreads
\90% of all dread related info online is false
Sorry Asha, but you don't have the longest locks and you scammed the Guinness Book.
It's also strange how your hair went from 8ft to over 19 feet in just 2 years....
Any way, when I was in India there are holy people that have locks that are 4x's loner than yours.
This woman is a pathetic scam!
this video is less than 2 years later where her hair miraculously grows 11 feet!
She give a real lame excuse as to why the jump in inches on her site saying its because she had some if the longer pieces tied up under her hair when she did this video, but you can see that that is a blatant lie...why would you tie your longest pieces up if your going for the Guinness book of records? LIAR! lol
youtube.com/watch?v=TzYaFhZD5s0
Sorry people but Asha is a scam and she's going to get caught.
Not only doesn't she have the longest locks in the world, she added hair to extend its length...
she went from having 8 ft of hair to over 19 feet of hair in under two years o.0
that alone would be a world's record....
Meanwhile she's going bald on top
Asha your a phony and there are a lot of us who know exactly what you did to your hair....shameful!
I thought she was a scam. I am a licensed beautician and my specialty is locking hair for more than 30 years and I could tell this woman was a fraud with only the one long continually growing then a year later her hair growing 11 more feet and the top of her head going bald!
Not to mention, I would advise anyone with locks to put that much shampoo in their hair because you would go bald for sure. You also do not put conditioner in locks or they will fall out!
This is a pathetic woman looking for attention. I know exactly how she got those fake locks! loll!
When the white folks at the Guinness Book of Records find out she's going to have a lot of explaining to do, and maybe even a law suit and jail time!
I heard the Guinness people are looking into it because they have been getting a lot of feed back from too many people that are saying this woman is a fraud
She lost me at "I'm from a mixed family so I guess that gives me a little of that GOOD textured hair that allowed it to grow really long." How ignorant is that? Texture doesn't have anything to do with growth!