Aevin Dugas a 38-year-old social worker from Louisiana, holds the Guinness Record for the largest natural afro hairstyle in the world, with a circumference measuring an incredible 4 feet 4 inches (1.32 m). The hairdo has taken over 14 years to grow to its current proportions, and although Aevin is really proud of it, she admits sometimes it can be pretty problematic.
At one point in her life, Aevin Dugas used all kinds of tricks to straighten her curly hair, until she realized that wasn’t what she really wanted. “As a woman you’re told that straight hair is beautiful hair. This is crazy,” she says “The afro is my natural hairstyle and there can’t be anything more beautiful than that”. 14 years ago, inspired by an old photo of her mother sporting an afro, she traded in her straight tresses for a big round hairdo and never looked back. Her hair just kept growing, and in 2010 she set a new world record for the world’s biggest afro, becoming an inspiration for black women to ditch relaxers and go natural. As you can expect, Aevin’s hair draws attention wherever she goes, and while most people just ask her if it’s real, some can’t resist touching it to see for themselves.
Aevin plans to let her afro grow as long as she can, but the Louisiana native admits the large ball of hair is already problematic at time. She has problems seeing in the side mirrors unless she turns her head to face them when driving, the hair constantly gets caught up in trees, and she really hates it when people touch it without permission. She trims her hairdo three times a years and uses five conditioners at once when she washes it. Believe it or not, the hair takes about two days to dry, and Aevin remembers one time she washed her hair on a Sunday and on Wednesday it was still damp. Still, Dugas says there is one huge advantage to having a giant afro. Since her ‘do is larger than a disco-ball and really soft, it makes the perfect pillow.