At age 44, Xie Qiuping cut her hair for the first time in over three decades.
At the time, her impressive locks extended over five meters, earning the Guinness World Record for the world's longest hair.
But even with this record-setting feat, her hair might not have reached its maximum possible length.
So just how long can human hair actually grow?
To get to the bottom of this question, let's start at the bottom of a hair follicle.
Follicles are tube-shaped structures nestled roughly half a centimeter below the skin's surface.
At their base is what's called the hair bulb, and it contains rapidly dividing matrix cells.
As they divide, these develop into specialized hair cells called trichocytes, which harden as they fill themselves with cable-like keratin proteins.
As more and more trichocytes are produced, they form a strand of hair that emerges from the follicle and grows upwards.
All the hair on your body grows this way, but not all hair will grow to the same length, shape, or color.
