She wants to get weird men out of her hair for good.
Sofia Black, a 31-year-old archeologist and tech support employee from Bulgaria, is a real-life Rapunzel with locks that measure 44 inches long.
Black has spent a decade growing her hair and has found herself entangled in uncomfortable scenarios with strangers who reportedly offer to buy her tresses for up to $150.
“One time I was approached by someone on the street who wanted to buy my hair,” she told Media Drum World.
“I had my hair down, and suddenly this guy appeared and handed me his business card,” she explained.
Black said she told the man she planned to donate her hair to a cancer charity. She was flabbergasted when he tried to persuade her not to.
Black stopped shaving her head in 2013 because the maintenance was too much.
“My hair grows quite fast, which meant that if I wanted to keep it at a double zero, I had to practically shave daily,” she explained.
At the time, someone suggested she give the locks to charity.
She had recently moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, and didn’t know that hair donation charities existed.
“We didn’t have anything like that in Bulgaria, and my heart sank,” she reasoned.
“I felt terrible that my good hair just went to waste, so after some consideration, I decided to grow my hair out to its maximum length and then organize a campaign before cutting it, and then donate it for children suffering from cancer,” she added.
Black had no problem telling the man on the street to shave his offer for someone else.
“I thanked him for the offer, but told him what I was saving my hair for, and we got into an argument about hair donation versus selling hair for profit,” she recalled.
Black was able to brush off the interaction, saying she’s mostly had positive encounters. Little girls ask her if she is a princess.
“My favorite reaction is from my niece who always says I look like a princess when my hair is down, and she aspires to have hair like mine one day,” she gushed. “Most little girls tend to have this reaction.”
Others stop her to ask how she cares for such long locks.
“The most common question I get is, ‘How do you maintain it? It must take forever,’ which to me is very entertaining because having long hair for me is so much easier to maintain than having short hair, as that takes so much effort to style,” Black shared. “With my hair — I just brush it and then put it up in a loose bun and it’s good to go.”
She plans to grow her hair as long as she possibly can.
“I cut it every now and then, but only when I see split ends, maybe once a year?” she revealed.
