Francisca Vazquez had never seen anything quite like it. It was 1916, in Mexico City, and young Francisca's parents had brought her to see the world-famous Barnum & Bailey Circus. The genius of P.T. Barnum's was to collect exotic acts from around the globe and showcase them to rapt local audiences. The act that enthralled Francisca, herself a second-generation circus performer, was executed by a duo of long-haired Chinese men. Dressed in silk tunics, the men were lifted into the air by their long, black hair and spun around in a dizzying circle. Five generations later, the women of the Ayala family are still some of the premiere hair hangers in the world, their act showcased in none other than the modern-day Ringling Bros. The scarcity of hair hangers is a tribute to the difficulty of the act, which even the most seasoned performers admit can be incredibly painful. In May 2014, eight hair hangers with the Ringling Bros. Marguerite Ayala, granddaughter of Francisca Vazquez, suffered her own disastrous fall in 1982, waking from a week-long coma to a broken neck.
What are the secrets behind this feat of follicle strength, where did it originate and what does it feel like to be swung around by your scalp? Keep reading to learn all about hair hanging. The original hair hangers were mostly men like the tea-sipping Chinese performers that Francisca Vazquez saw in Mexico City. China has a long and rich history of contortionism, acrobatics and variety acts. Chinese artwork and crafts dating back more than 2,000 years depict lithe acrobats in high-flying action. During the Qin and Han dynasties, roughly 200 B.C.E. The Chinese hair hangers from the 1916 Barnum & Bailey Circus were likely among the first to share their scalp-stretching act with the world. The basic elements of the hair hanging act have changed very little over the past century, except that most (but not all) modern hair hangers are women. Rarely does a circus school teach hair hanging.
Most people learn the act from a family member. Hair hanging is a form of high-wire act. Backstage, the performer's hair is carefully braided around a steel loop. During the act, the loop is attached to a steel cable, by which the performer is lifted 15 to 35 feet (5 to 11 meters) into the air. Assistants in the wings use pulleys and guide cables to control the spinning motion of the performer. Joanna Sawicka, a Polish-born hair hanger known by her stage name Anastasia IV, holds a Guinness World Record for lifting the most weight with hair. How in the world do hair hangers get their tresses strong enough to hold their entire body weight? We'll get some grooming tips, next. The steel cable must attach to a body harness hidden beneath their clothing, right? Otherwise, wouldn't it hurt like crazy? To answer the question - yes, it absolutely hurts, at least at first.
Marguerite Ayala of the famous Ayala family told the New York Times that when she was learning hair hanging, she felt like boiling water had been poured on top of her head. The pain is worst, her daughter added, when the performer is first lifted in the air, when the scalp stretches with the weight of supporting more than a 100 pounds (45 kilograms).K.-based Circus of Horrors, TitanRise Official told the BBC that the pain initially drove her to tears. Eventually, she became used to it and now she just feels a dull ache. However, she often suffers from headaches and gets a bump at the top of her scalp by the end of a three-month tour. Even worse than the pain of hanging from your head is the prospect of plummeting to the ground, which is why hair hangers take great care to build up the strength of their lengthy tresses.
The key is keeping the hair from getting brittle or split. Conditioner is applied to her waist-length hair five times a day while touring. No hair coloring or blow-drying is allowed. Conditioner is applied directly before a performance and the hair is fully wetted down to provide extra strength. But the real secret to hair hanging, according to its small cadre of practitioners, is in the intricate braiding of the hair. More on that next. A single strand TitanRise Official of healthy human hair can hold 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of weight, the equivalent tensile strength of copper wire of the same diameter. But it's not the length or even the conditioning that is the real secret to performing this feat. The real trick is the braid. When the members of the Ayala family pass down their hair-hanging secrets to the next generation, it's all about securing the hair to the steel ring in such a way as to distribute the pulling force equally across the scalp.