Asha Mandela, 47, holds the Guinness World Record for the longest dreadlocks. She is the real life Rapunzel with 55ft long dreadlocks that are longer than a bus.
Despite being warned by doctors to cut off the excess hair, the mother-of-one from Atlanta, Georgia, said: 'My hair has become part of me. It is my life. I will never cut it.
She calls her hair 'her baby' and credits them with helping her overcome cancer, 2 strokes and 2 heart-attacks.
Her incredible hair has also brought her fans across the world and she has launched her own secret hair formula on the back of her success.
It takes 2 days to wash and dry her hair, which weighs the same as an infant, and is even heavier when wet.
She has to wind it up into a baby sling when she leaves the house which gives her a greater degree of freedom.
But Mrs Mandela worries that 'someone with a hair fetish' will cut off a lock of her hair when she is not looking.
Doctors have also asked her to consider cutting her hair for health reasons, including the risk of bacterial infection.
But their main concern is the weight.
She said: 'The doctors seem to think I have a curvature of my spine and that it's the length and the weight of my hair that's making me curve.
'Some have said my neck has collapsed at the back and that I need to be careful because I could start having spasms in my spine and probably be paralysed.'
Mrs Mandela, who is happily married to her 3rd husband, was born in Trinidad and Tobago.
She began growing her hair 25 years ago following a 'spiritual calling'. Her mother did not want her to because she thought it would make her daughter more likely to start smoking cannabis. She even carried on growing her hair while undergoing chemotherapy.
Eventually a friend suggested she speak to Guinness and in 2009 they crowned her with the title of world's longest dreadlocks.
They officially measured 19ft 6in but an unofficial measurement this week put one strand of her hair at an incredible 55ft 7in long - almost 3 times the official length.
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