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Posted 4 months ago
antiquariu…
(123 items)
This is a cabinet card with a bizarre image. This image brings up more questions than it does tell a story.....
- did he comb it out regularly, or was it permanently braided?
- if the former, how long did it take to comb it out?
- if the latter, were there insects living in there?
- what did he do with it when he went to bed?
- did he wash it?
- did he have neck or back problems from carrying around all that weight?
- and the big one........WHY?
Cabinet Card PhotographsFirst introduced in the 1860s, cabinet card photographs were similar to car…
This photo is of Hans N. Langseth (born in Norway 1846, died in Barney, N. Dakota 1927). He is the holder of the Guinness World Record for mens beard length. This picture was taken when he was age 66 (1912) and his beard was 18 feet, 6" long. His beard was cut after his death by his son (who left 12" on him for burial) and is now on display in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
He is still the current holder of the mens beard length record.
Thanks for the info Mustangtony - still bizarre and does not anwer "why" for me!
as someone who used to wear dreads [when i had enough hair to do it], i used to get these same questions all the time. i'll answer them w/ my own guesses. no, he didn't comb it out or it never would have gotten so long. combing breaks off a lot of hair. braiding it makes it stronger so it won't break. i'll assume that his beard went to bed w/ him every single night. he may have tied it up when he went to bed - mainly to keep rrom braking t.
do woman w/ long hair get insects in it when they let it grow long? i will assume he washed it.
hair is not really so heavy, so i don't know how he'd get backaches.
wikipedia - According to Langseth of Alma Richards, his granddaughter, the beard had its origin in a bet between Langseth and neighbors who could be let out of two over the winter to grow the longer beard. Langseth won the bet and let his beard grow further.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Langseth
They had a lot of Testosterone in those good old days...RER (LOUMANAL)