Inside the search for the world’s longest hair
Untitled (Konkursas), 2024, by Francesca Allen
Each year, hundreds of girls and women flock to Kaunas, a medieval city on the Nemunas river in Lithuania, to participate in the world’s longest hair competition. In a spectacle that has been running since 1992, contestants – some as young as two years old – have their hair measured by red-gloved judges before walking down a runway and shaking their tresses in a ceremonial finale. Long fascinated with girlhood and coming-of-age rituals, the British photographer Francesca Allen documented the event in 2024, the results of which are now collected in a clothbound book. The portraits, which span more than 50 images shot in colour and black and white, capture the participants both backstage and gathered on stage, their metres of cascading hair a mesmerising sea of ripples and curls. “I’ve always wanted my hair to be incredibly long,” writes Allen. “Hair represents hyper-femininity [but also] influences how we are perceived by others, how professional we appear, our identity, our religion and culture. It plays a huge role in the enactment of self and also our discrimination against others.” Sara Semic
