Helen Williams, a wigmaker from Lagos, Nigeria, has broken the world’s longest wig record by creating a whopping 1,152-foot and 5-inch hairpiece, securing her inclusion on the Guinness World Records.
According to Nigeria’s The Guardian, it took Williams 11 days and more than 2 million naira (around $2,400) to make the handmade wig.
The Guinness World Records took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to celebrate Williams’ achievement.
“Helen Williams from Lagos, Nigeria has achieved a new record for the longest handmade wig which stretches an incredible 351.28 metres (1,152 ft 5 in),” the organization wrote with a clapping emoji and a video of a model wearing the unfathomably long wig.
In the clip, the remarkable hair piece cascades down the Lagos–Abeokuta Expressway, which connects Lagos and Abeokuta, another Nigerian city, The Guinness World Records shared. It also shows Williams carefully constructing the wig. The process started by assembling the underlay with wig-cap netting and black fabric attached to a bike helmet. After that, Williams used 1,000 bundles of hair, 12 cans of hairspray, 35 tubes of hair glue and 6,250 hair clips.
“Finding the materials to make the longest wig was not an easy task,” Williams told The Guinness World Records. “My experience as a wigmaker helped a lot.”
Williams has been in the wig-making game for almost a decade and makes 50 to 300 wigs weekly.
“I have trained hundreds of students and have made thousands of wigs,” she shared with The Guinness World Records.
But Williams’ wig-making experience didn’t make making the world’s longest wig a simple endeavor.
“At some point, I felt exhausted,” she confessed.
Thankfully, Williams’ “friends and family encouraged me. I did not want to let them down, so I maintained my focus. The outcome is the longest handmade wig in the world.”
Williams grew up reading The Guinness World Records’ annual book and called her inclusion in that legacy unbelievable.
“This achievement is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. I still cannot believe it,” Williams shared.
The wig now resides in Williams’ office, where anyone can admire it “whenever they want to.”