Long-hair record a bit risky

FIONA GOODALL/East & Bays Courier

HAIRING AROUND: Alistair Galpin has a taste of what the next six weeks will be like with five metre long hair. Evelyn Park is the hair extension specialist working with him to create a Guinness World Record.

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Hair today, long tomorrow.

An unusual world record is being attempted tomorrow.

Alastair Galpin of Pt Chevalier is voluntarily having five-metre hair extensions attached to his hair.

He intends to wear the extensions for six weeks, raising the bar from a previous record of only one metre, and setting a new Guinness world record.

"I’m hoping there’s no major gusts of wind," he says.

Evelyn Park is the St Heliers hair extension specialist in whose hands he is putting his hopes.

"That would be terrible," she says. "If we were using real hair it wouldn’t be too bad, but synthetic hair tangles easily."

Five metres of it could do worse than tangle though, Mr Galpin says.

"I really have to be careful with it for reasons beyond the norm. For instance, if it was to get hooked in any machinery or if it got caught in a bus door or something, I could be dragged down the road by my hair and break my neck."

Originally from Zambia, Ms Park made New Zealand her home 15 years ago. Hair extensions have become a speciality and mainstay of her craft at her home studio Garden of Eve.

Mr Galpin views setting records as his "engagement in life" – his way of making a statement or taking a stand for things he believes in, and living "a life less ordinary".

The day he has chosen coincides with the Guinness world record day, where people worldwide honour the institution by attempting to set new records.

"Usually my record attempts have their roots in social or conservation and environmental causes, this is certainly the most whacky one I’ve done," he says.

"Caring for it won’t be a problem, I’ll ask my lady friends to brush it for me," he says with a laugh.

- © Fairfax NZ News