12-Year-Old Girl Set To Cut Hair For The First Time...Plans To Sell It For £3,500

12-year-old Natasha Moraes de Andrade, who lives in an impoverished shanty town in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, has never had a haircut. At 5ft 3in, she is just one inch taller than the length of her wavy chestnut hair - and the maintenance it requires sees her use a full bottle of shampoo every week.

Natasha spends four hours per week washing her hair and up to an hour-and-a-half brushing it each day. She has to carry it around when she walks, and fold it onto her lap when she sits down. Despite Rio's 40-degree heat Natasha's family cannot switch on a fan in the house because her hair gets caught in it.

And children often stand outside her house and shout 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair'.

Her mother Catarina Moraes de Andrade, 42, said admirers told her

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never to cut her daughter's beautiful hair as it was so thick and long. But now she's urging her girl to chop it off because it's interfering with her life.

Mrs Moreas de Andrade said: 'We spend about about £400 a year on shampoo, which is a lot of money for us. 'I've let her keep it this way because she likes having such long hair, but the time has come to get it cut’.

Natasha has been offered £1,750 for her hair once it has been lopped off but hopes to make more. She said: 'I love my long hair and I'll be sad when it's gone. But it's a pain looking after it. 

'I can't do a lot of things, like P.E. lessons at school’. 'I hope to sell it for £3,500 and refurbish my bedroom. I hope it can give me a new life'. 

Natasha plans to cut it into a bob before she starts the next term of school.

Although she lives close to one of the city's beaches, she can't go swimming because sea water damages her hair and takes hours to clean out.

The Guinness World Record for the world's longest hair belongs to China'sXie Qiuping whose hair measures 5.63 metres.

Source:Dailymail Uk