By Charles Mgbolu
After spending 11 days and over two million naira ($2,493), Nigerian wigmaker Helen Williams has broken the Guinness World Record (GWR) by creating the world’s longest handmade wig, measuring 351.28 metres.
Helen completed the hairpiece using 1,000 bundles of hair, 12 cans of hair spray, 35 tubes of hair glue, and 6,250 hair clips.
“Finding the materials to make the longest wig was not an easy task. My experience as a wigmaker helped a lot,” Helen told GWR.
She has been working as a professional wigmaker for eight years, producing anywhere from 50 to 300 wigs per week.
“I have trained hundreds of students and have made thousands of wigs,” she revealed.
No simple feat
Despite having such extensive experience, creating the record-breaking wig was not a simple feat for Helen.
“At some point, I felt exhausted,” she shared, but friends and family encouraged her.
Helen now keeps the wig in her office, where she invites anyone to come and look at it “whenever they want to”.
Having grown up reading the annual Guinness World Records book each year, Helen is overjoyed at now being a record holder herself.
“It will take a while for me to digest,” she said.
“This achievement is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I still cannot believe it.”
