KIEN GIANG - Herbalist Tran Van Hay, the man with longest locks, died of natural causes at his home in Kien Giang Province yesterday.

He was 79 and unfortunately died before receiving formal acknowledgement of his record.

He had stopped cutting his hair 50 years ago and his hair was 6.8m long and weighed 10.5kg. The world record is now in the name of a Chinese woman whose hair is 5.6m long.

The herbalist was providing free treatment to poor patients in Chau Thanh District until his death.

Nguyen Thi Hoa, his wife, told the media that he had stopped cutting his hair at 25 after often falling seriously ill whenever he cut it.

Tran Van Hay, the man with the world's longest hair. He passed away due to natural causes yesterday. - VNS Photo

In the five decades since, he had only washed his hair a few times, the last time being 11 years ago.

Since he began to grow his hair, his personality had completely changed - he lived a plain and contented life and had been inspired by Buddhist monks in nearby pagodas to learn traditional medicine to help the poor.

But his hair had become too much of a burden in his day-to-day life; he could not work as a farmer because of it.

-Viet Nam News/Asia News Network