SCALP HAIR LENGTH 377 (Table VI) we used equation B. As indicated above, the estimates for the numbers of people provided by this equation are most likely low since the data used to derive the equation are from Table VII and are only from long-haired persons identified and measured over the time frame in the sources indicated. OTHER SOURCES Several decades ago, the Guinness group reported, "The longest recorded hair (scalp) was that of Swami Pandarasannadhi of the Thiruvadu Thurai monastery, India. His hair was reported in 1949 to be 792 cm (26 feet) in length" (2). The Guinness group continued, for three decades, to report the Swami as having the world's longest hair, but later (4) added the qualifying detail, "From photographs it appears that he was afflicted with the disease Plica caudiformis" (4). This is a disease of the scalp causing the hair to be matted and crusted, with the fibers "glued" together, appearing to form one single thick club like the tail of a horse. Later, in 1990 and 1991, the Guinness group indicated that, "no photographic or scientific evidence has ever been supplied in order to support this extreme measurement," for the hair of the Swami. Equation B indicates approximately one person in 6.7 billion for scalp hair at 792 cm in length. Considering that this number (6.7 B) is approximately 1.5 times the current world adult population, the hair length of 792 cm is a remote possibility. However, Carl Haub of the Population Reference Bureau in Washington estimates "105 billion births since the dawn of the human race" (16), and he feels that his assumptions of constant population growth during different periods, especially in the earlier periods, most likely leads to an underestimate rather than an overestimate. Of course, the practice of cutting hair also decreased dramatically in earlier years however, this factor would be balanced by a decrease in longevity in earlier years. Therefore, a scalp hair length of 792 cm since the beginning of time is a possibility. However, it is not surprising that that length has not been documented. In 1988 and 1990 the Guinness Book of World Records listed Diane Witt (9) as having the world's longest hair, and then Mata Jagdamba was measured on February 21, 1994 (5), followed later (1999) by Hu Saelao (Hoo Sateow), a tribal medicine man ofChiang Mai, Thailand, as having the longest scalp hair. At that time Hu was 85 years old. His hair measured 5.15 meters (16 feet, 10 inches) in 1999 (6), and he was reported to have not cut it for 70 years. According to the Guinness website (www. guinnessworldrecords. com), Hu washes his hair annually in detergent and wears it wound up in a "beehive" hairstyle. From photographs, he appears bald in the frontal area and his extensive growth of hair appears to be primarily from the rear portion of the scalp. Hu's brother also has hair nearly 5 meters long. Our literature search revealed three people today with hair near that length. The following facts on beard and mustache length, although not specifically relevant to this article, are listed for the interested reader. The longest beard on record was that of Hans N. Langseth of Norway, who was born in 1846 and died in the USA in 1927 (6). According to Guinness, at the time of his death in 1927, his beard measured 533.4 cm (17.5 feet) in length. It was presented to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, in 1967. The Guinness source lists the beard of Janice Deverse of Bracken County,

378 JOURNAL OF COSMETIC SCIENCE Kentucky, measured at 35.6 cm (14 inches) in 1884 as the longest recorded beard for a woman (6). The longest mustache on record was that of Kalyan Ramji Sain of Sundargarth, India, with a span of 339 cm (133.5 inches) and a length of 172 cm (673/4 inches) on the right side and 167 cm (653/4 inches) on the left side, measured in July of 1993 (6). SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Hair length estimates by anatomical site, previously made in Florida theme parks on "adults," are related to anatomical measurements to obtain estimates of actual free- hanging hair lengths in centimeters. A plot of the natural logarithm of the percent population versus these hair lengths provides a straight line. The equation of this line permits the estimation of the numbers of persons in the USA and the developed world with hair lengths up to about 183 cm (just beyond ankle-length). Data were also collected via a literature search for even longer hair lengths (ankle-length or longer) to provide an equation to estimate the numbers of persons with exceptionally long hair. A plot of these two equations together suggests that "normal" anagen periods may be considerably longer than current estimates in the literature. REFERENCES (1) C. Robbins and M. G. Robbins, Scalp hair length. I. Hair length in Florida theme parks: An approxi- mation of hair length in the United States of America, J. Cosmet. Sci., 54, 53-62 (2003). (2) www. UNSTA TS. UN. O R G /UNS D/demographic/ww2OOOtahle l a. htm. (3) Guinness Book of World Records 1968, Norris and Ross McWhirter, Eds. (Bantam Books, published by arrangement with Sterling Publishing Co., 1968), p. 25. (4) Guinness Book of World Records 1981, Norris and Ross McWhirter, Eds. (Sterling Publishing Co., New York, 1981), p. 37. (5) Guinness Book of World Records 1996 (Facts on File, Inc., New York, 1995), p. 13. (6) Guinness Book of World Records 1999 (Facts on File, Inc., New York, 2000), p. 241. (7) F. Pflonissen, www. tlhs. org/extlng. html. (8) S. Wannabovorn, www. rense. com/ufo2ghostly. html. (9) Godrej Hair Care Institute, www. haircareindia. com/funzone. html. (10) Resident population of the US by 5-year age groups and sex: April 1, 1990 census and July 1, 1990 to July 1, 1995 estimates, www. state. la.m/state/census/95ageest. html. (11) M. Saitoh, M. Uzuka, and M. Sakamoto, Human hair cycle, J. Invest. Dermatol., 54, 65-81 (1970). (12) A.M. Kligman, The human hair cycle,•/. Invest. Dermatol., 33, 307-316 (1959). (13) R.J. Myers andJ. B. Hamilton, Regeneration and rate of growth of hairs in man, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 53, 562-568 (1951). (14) J. M. Barman, I. Astore, and V.J. Pecoraro, The normal trichogram of the adult. J. Invest. Dermatol., 44, 233-236 (1965). (15) Trends in births, life expectancy, fertility and age structure, 1975 to 2000, www. overpopulation. org/ culture. html. (16) C. Haub, How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth ? (Population Reference Bureau, Washington, D.C., 1995).