For many years Rapunzels Today has been publishing long hair contests, and while they are great, there are real-life Rapunzels out there who have never entered these competitions but would have a great chance of winning if they did. So we set out to find them and on our first attempt we came across Elena from Kyiv, who has by far the longest and most beautiful hair I've seen in ten years of photography!
Do you remember the animated movie 'Tangled', Disney's version of the fairy tale Rapunzel? It's about a girl with magical hair who is held captive in a tower by her evil stepmother. And although Elena was able to grow her hair voluntarily and freely and grew up in a loving family, the resemblance between her and the fictional character Rapunzel from this movie is striking. Her natural blonde and healthy hair with an incredible length of 180 cm certainly has something magical about it, but at the same time she turns out to be a fashionable schoolgirl whose life is not so different from that of other girls her age.
Not only is she blessed with hair that most girls can only dream of, but she also has sporting and musical talents. She proves that life with exceptionally long hair doesn't come with any limitations, as figure skating was one of her hobbies for years. She has performed in various plays and in 2011 won first prize in the Mini Miss Blonde competition, which is held annually in Kyiv. She also plays the piano and singing is simply her greatest passion, which gives her great pleasure. She even recently graduated with honors from a music school!
For the photo session with Elena, we chose the most beautiful and enchanting places in Kyiv, namely the Pechersk Lavra Monastery and the nearby Slavy Park with a breathtaking view of the city. See if you can spot the giant Motherland statue in one of the photos, which can be seen from every corner of the city!
In most of the photos, Elena is wearing a vyshevanka, a traditional Ukrainian shirt with colorful patterns or flowers embroidered on it, and matching pants. To complete the Ukrainian experience, she poses in front of Kalyna berries, which grow in parks and in the wild all over Ukraine and, I'm told, produce delicious jams and juices. At the lower entrance to the monastery, Elena walks up the stairs in a beautiful floor-length dress, as if she were climbing Rapunzel's tower. It made perfect sense to take some old-fashioned-looking black and white photos that seem to come straight out of an old picture book!
Many girls and women have the desire to grow their hair to the ground or longer, but unfortunately only a few succeed, as hair growth is limited to a certain final length. But we can learn from Elena if we ask her to let us in on a little of her secret. It may be something we all know, but patience and determination are the first requirements, plus a great love for her own hair, every single day. With the help of her mother, she washes her hair weekly with a regular shampoo and conditioner to make it easy to comb. So it's just as important not to see it as a burden to spend a considerable amount of time caring for your gorgeous mane.
She has no plans to break a national record, and when asked how long she'll let her hair grow, she wisely replies that she doesn't know what will happen. But she doesn't mind the hair, and she gets great support from her family, so I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing and hearing more from Elena in the near future.
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