If you’ve got long hair, you’re probably used to shedding a small handful of it every time you shower.
Featured VideoFor most people, that hair ends up in the trash. But one woman had a different idea—she decided to keep hers to make a wig. And now, five years later, it’s turned into something much more than just a little pile of drain hair.
Since 2020, TikToker Ashley (@reallyrapunzel) has been documenting her commitment to saving every strand she loses while washing her hair.
AdvertisementInstead of tossing it, she carefully adds each new clump to her growing row of dead hair—now big enough to braid.
“Guysss it’s officially been 5 years?!” she writes in her latest video, which has been viewed over 2.6 million times.
In the clip, Ashley takes the hair she’s just lost in the shower and presses it onto the large hair clump she’s been building.
@reallyrapunzel Antwort auf @delulu ♬ King – Olly Alexander (Years & Years)Advertisement
She then gives it a spritz of styling product, brushes it smooth, and showcases its length by twisting it.
How much hair do we really lose in the shower?
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, it’s totally normal to lose anywhere from 50 to 100 hairs a day. That number can climb higher depending on factors like stress, postpartum hormones, or excessive brushing.
Over the course of five years, assuming Ashley loses around 75 hairs a day, that adds up to more than 136,000 hairs, enough to make a luscious braid.
AdvertisementIn the comments, longtime followers and first-time viewers alike weighed in.
“Are you bald now?” one person asked.
Another admitted, “I just realized that I’ve been along for the ride this whole time and never followed the page.”
Advertisement“Nah, because why does that look better than my hair?” someone else wrote.
Others were just trying to make sense of the timeline. “I remember day one popping up on my fyp,” one commenter said. “How did we get here?”
“So you’ve lost my entire head of hair in 5 years, writes a fourth.
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