Asha Mandela

She calls her hair 'her baby' and credits them with helping her overcome cancer, two strokes and two heart-attacks. Her incredible hair has also brought her fans across the world and she has launched her own secret hair formula on the back of her success. It takes two days to wash and dry her hair, which weighs the same as a reception-age child, and is even heavier when wet. It can also get easily trapped in doors or snag on bushes.
She has to wind it up into a baby sling when she leaves the house which gives her a greater degree of freedom. But Mrs Mandela worries that 'someone with a hair fetish' will cut off a lock of her hair when she is not looking.
Doctors have also asked her to consider cutting her hair for health reasons, including the risk of bacterial infection. But their main concern is the weight. She said: 'The doctors seem to think I have a curvature of my spine and that it's the length and the weight of my hair that's making me curve. Some have said my neck has collapsed at the back and that I need to be careful because I could start having spasms in my spine and probably be paralysed.'