The 79-year-old man died before receiving formal acknowledgement of his record. He had stopped cutting his hair for 50 years and his hair was 6.8m long and weighed 10.5kg.

The world record is now in the name of a Chinese women whose hair is 5.6m long.

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

He had only washed his hair a few times over the past five decades with the last time being 11 years ago. Since he began to grow his hair, his personality had completely changed- he lived in a 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.