A woman nicknamed “real life Rapunzel” who has 1.8m long hair says she receives marriage proposals from men all over the world.
Alena Kravchenko, 34, who has to set aside an hour to wash her blonde locks, has been growing her hair for almost 30 years and believes the real beauty of a woman is the “length of her hair”.
After starting an Instagram page last year, Alena of Odessa, Ukraine – aka @alenuwka_longhair – has racked up 13.3k followers. Not only does she receive marriage proposals, but men also ask if they can “sniff” her hair.
She said: “From childhood, my mother told me how long a braid adorns a woman, her words live in my heart and soul throughout life. For me, true beauty is in naturalness, which is why my hair is so long, it is the manifestation of my inner world, part of me and my soul.”
Alyona explains how she tries to “laugh off” the marriage proposals and other requests from strangers. “When people see the length of my hair, they can’t hide their enthusiastic looks and emotions, it’s very nice,” she explained.
“Also, many come up and say how unusual and beautiful it is nowadays. My subscribers are the best and always delight me with positive and good comments addressed to me. The most unusual comments are requests to sniff my hair.
“Аll my near and dear people admire my natural beauty and the length of my hair. They are proud that they know me and have the honour of telling about me. A lot of men admire my hair, want to meet, travel, invite me to visit their country, make offers of hand and heart. I can laugh it off correctly, often I don’t answer messages so as not to give a man hope.”
While Alena has no plans to grow her hair even longer, she doesn’t plan on cutting it either. “I never wanted to cut my hair and I don’t want to grow it even lower, I don’t know, time will tell, naturally I really want it,” she said.
“The most important pluses of the length of my hair is that I stand out against ordinary women, I have my own personality and originality.” Having hair as long as Alyona’s can be very time-consuming, and washing her locks once a week takes around an hour.
She also combs her hair twice a day and trims the ends every six months to keep her hair strong. “I wash my hair once a week, this process takes about an hour, given the preparation before and after washing,” she said.
“I comb my hair at least two times a day, I usually braid my hair, make a bun. I use both natural products and hair care products, as well as professional products. I trim the ends two times a year, the last time I did it in July, I cut 15 centimetres.”
And having long hair doesn’t come without its inconveniences, with Alyona admitting she does accidentally step on her locks from time to time.
She said: “I can’t notice any situations with long hair. The only thing in the loose form is to accidentally step on the hair.
“There are no physical discomforts, given that the braid grew with me all my life. Accordingly, my body is used to it. The main secret in long beautiful hair is a great desire to have such beauty. You cannot doubt it for a moment.”
Photo Credit: Getty
