the seven sutherland sisters and their 37 feet of hair

[misspurdy06]

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-seven-sutherland-sisters-and-their-37-feet-of-hair/


Back when people still had some sense on what was sexy.

[Marbid]

woooo I agree with you! The Sutherland sisters had hair!! I personally see that as femininity. Not those boy cuts some celebrities get. Not cute at all. Sure is chick, but not girly or feminine at all. There are very very very very very few american celebrities (Crystal Gale) who have the type of hair I admire. Wish there where more. Oh well.

[Macaroni]

Very interesting and tragic. Thank you.

[gus]

Very sobering to read that - yes, they were considered attractive because of their hair, but it didn't help them in the last. A good lesson that it's always better to please yourself and turn your nose up at what anybody else thinks. The minute you start looking a certain way for other people, you lose.

[Crumpet]

Woah! Amazing article. Thanks for sharing!

[Inching Along]

Thank you for sharing this, misspurdy. Fascinating! I enjoy reading what people did and thought was important "back in the day." So sad to hear how their lives went. It is great to be able to see photos and old advertising elements; I grew up surrounded by antiques and postcards and old cabinet photos and advertisements. I can't imagine having so very much hair...but I hope mine will grow to at least BSL. :)

[vendethiel]

Thanks for sharing! They did have beautiful hair! Maybe we should start marketing an LHC hair growth tonic and, following their tradition, we could just use coconut oil and some sort of essential oil for fragrance. ;)

[jacqueline101]

That's interesting thanks for sharing.

[PixieKitten]

This is so interesting, and very sobering to hear how it ended for them :/ Thank you for sharing :)

[Lady Mary]

I knew about them but didn't realize how the ending of their lives went, that's sad :(

[juliaxena]

Thanks for sharing. People's perception of sexy changes through eras. I am generally not glad about what we have now.

[rosey4exclaim]

This is a cool and informative article, but really, do we have to judge what anyone thinks is sexy?

[PeaceTeaRules]

Interesting and sobering article, it made my day however. Thank you for sharing. :)

[melusine963]

I'd heard about them before, but I never knew they had quite such unhappy endings. :(

[wrh452]

Woah. Their lives were pretty crazy.

[Amygirl8]

That was a really interesting read.
I also wonder what their mum put on their hair, since it seems to have worked lol

[chen bao jun]

Some things change, like standards of beauty and sexiness.
Some things never change, like having a bad life when you have a stage papa who is willing to exploit you and the unfortunate results of getting rich too quickly and assuming the money will roll in forever.
I think Joe Jackson (father of the Jackson five) and Mr. Sutherland will have a lot to discuss with each other in the hereafter.
I had heard ofthe sisters but not their life story and now I can see why it's not publicized. Thanks for posting. It was fascinating.

[Leeloo]

Thanks for posting the link. Very interesting story.

[woolyleprechaun]

I'm not surprised they had personal maids for their hair- that must have been some serious work. I wonder what their mother put on their hair... From the description of the smell, I'm thinking it may have been sulphur based.
Thanks for sharing!

[RavennaNight]

Thanks for sharing! An interesting story indeed. I wonder if they have any modern day re-enactors.

[Becky9679]

One point that isn't mentioned in the article is the reason long loose hair was considered sexy in the Victorian era - at that time women wore their hair up pretty much constantly and in general the only person who got to see a woman's hair loose was her husband (apart from maids of course!). Loose hair was almost akin to nakedness, which is the origin of the word 'hairdressing', meaning to put it up. This is also the reason pre-Raphaelite paintings were considered rather erotic and why ladies hair was a common motif in the poetry of the time.

I'm sure lots of people here know this already but I can't resist spouting off useless information sometimes!

Wonderful article ;)

[gnome82]

Thank You for sharing, it was a good read :)

[koko]

Thanks for sharing! :)

[gus]

Becky, that's so cool! I had no idea that this was the origin of the term "hairdressing," but now that you tell me it seems so obvious!

[melusine963]

One point that isn't mentioned in the article is the reason long loose hair was considered sexy in the Victorian era - at that time women wore their hair up pretty much constantly and in general the only person who got to see a woman's hair loose was her husband (apart from maids of course!). Loose hair was almost akin to nakedness, which is the origin of the word 'hairdressing', meaning to put it up. This is also the reason pre-Raphaelite paintings were considered rather erotic and why ladies hair was a common motif in the poetry of the time.

I had no idea about any of that, but come to think of it it makes perfect sense. Thanks for sharing!

[Remi]

Good article, thank you for sharing.

[Agnes Hannah]

They were like shooting stars!
What an amazing story, so sad for them at the end though.

[Nedertane]

Man, I could definitely have done without the author's snarky tone at the end - after this story of complex, interesting, successful yet tragic women, we have to come back to why they were apparently sexier/prettier/better than modern starlets? No thank you.

I also found it kind of funny that one of the sisters did try to pitch the story to Hollywood. While reading the article, I did think to myself that this could totally be the plot of a new HBO show, hahaha.

[christiansummer]

What a beautiful and sad story!
And I would totally watch their story on HBO.

[HazelBug]

That was a pretty interesting read! I'd never heard of them before. Too bad that their lives ended with so much tragedy.

[cathair]

Interesting that this has come up, I was reading about them last night. But reading about different things and also some of the information I read differs from this article.

My book says they had 49 feet of hair between them to begin with rather than 37. They were not considered beautiful, so were asked to cut fringes into their hair to enhance their faces. Once fringes were cut into their hair, their hair reacted badly to the cut and their combined length reduced to 29 feet. It also says that the hair tonic was completely useless and was purely a way to make money.

Sounds like they had very tragic lives. From being very poor, to being very rich, then all the way back to being poor again.

[vanillabones]

What a tragic tale, and I was not surprised by the outcome. A great and interesting read so thank you for sharing it on here.

[Faelin]

I've never heard of these sisters so this was an interesting read. Thank you. It is sad how they all ended up, more of a store of mental illness running in a single family. :(

[Rinna]

Thank you for sharing! I've seen photos of these ladies before, but was never aware of the back story. It was a great read.

[abauer789]

Thanks for sharing this article! I loved reading the history of the family. Sad yet fascinating! How times change!

[Micayla47]

What an interesting story! Thanks for sharing :)

[Kalamazoo]

Interesting that this has come up, I was reading about them last night. But reading about different things and also some of the information I read differs from this article.

My book says they had 49 feet of hair between them to begin with rather than 37. They were not considered beautiful, so were asked to cut fringes into their hair to enhance their faces. Once fringes were cut into their hair, their hair reacted badly to the cut and their combined length reduced to 29 feet. It also says that the hair tonic was completely useless and was purely a way to make money.

Sounds like they had very tragic lives. From being very poor, to being very rich, then all the way back to being poor again.

Hi Cathair. Which book on the Sutherlands are you referring to? They are fascinating people, for sure!

[leayellena]

And so the seven headline-stealing wonders of the Victorian era faded into obscurity. Perhaps we can rest assured that Miley Cyrus and her twerking shenanigans will disappear deep into the pages of pop-culture history in much the same way. One can always hope.

I soooooo love the last paragraph in this articles, because the lobbyists for short damaged extensions of our body sooooo deserve to dissapear from our culture! #sarcastic

[Wendyp]

Wow interesting read!

[Sarahlabyrinth]

So interesting to read about them! Such a shame it all went bad for them, a sad end...

[bokeh]

What a fascinating and sad story.

[Larke]

Very interesting, and I love the photos. I'm very interested in Pre-Raphaelite art (it's the main reason I want longer hair), so I'm always glad to know more about that time period.

[Aerya]

I had actually not heard of them before so this was an interesting read; as was the origin of the word hairdressing! It's a tragic story indeed, and one that has been repeated too many times. Sudden fame often brings tragedy.

They had beautiful hair though. It is also interesting to see how different perceptions of beauty was before. It is sad how that of today is so centered on picture perfect unnaturalness, but I do not doubt there were issues before either.

[maborosi]

Wow I never knew how tragic their story was...that's depressing.

[Milkchocolate]

This story is so fascinating ❤️ I really wish they’d make a movie about the Sutherland sisters. I feel like it could really appeal to a modern audience..as far as getting rich from marketing and gimmick products works (and is still very relevant today lol)
Although..i didn’t read anywhere that the tonic was phony?
Someone pls get this made into a movie :)

[MusicalSpoons]

This story is so fascinating ❤️ I really wish they’d make a movie about the Sutherland sisters. I feel like it could really appeal to a modern audience..as far as getting rich from marketing and gimmick products works (and is still very relevant today lol)
Although..i didn’t read anywhere that the tonic was phony?
Someone pls get this made into a movie :)

I'd only watch it if they cast real longhairs :p it's enough that virtually all disabled characters are played by able-bodied actors, so to cast shorthairs in the part of longhairs would just be too much :shake: :soapbox: (slight sarcasm/jest. I doubt they'd care about authenticity - though to find wigs or extensions long enough would probably cost the same as or more than sending someone to acting classes :shrug: )