The red yao from Longsheng are known because of theire very very long hair and the beautiful hairstyle they have. They live together with the Zhuang people, making rice on the longji terrace fields, they probably built 650 years ago.
Women of the Hongyi Yao treasure three things: long hair, silver ornaments, and hand-embroidered clothes. They bind their long, black hair with dark cloth and coil it high before their foreheads. Boasting more than 60 long-haired women, Heping Township holds a world record in the population of long-haired people. Locals call it the “No. 1 Long-Haired People’s Village Under Heaven.”
The Hongyi Yao women usually wear their hair longer than one meter, the longest being 1.8 meters. These hairstyles harbor secrets: before giving birth to children, the women coil their hair into a bun, wrapping it in a scarf. Once they become mothers, the women do away with their scarves. The Hongyi Yao women take good care of their hair with wooden combs. If their hair falls, they quickly pick it up and coil it back into a bun. With green mountains as the backdrop, small groups of women wash their hair beside village streams.
A folk song titled “the Long Hair Song” is still circulating among the Hongyi Yao women:
“By combing my hair black and shining,
I groom for my sweethear.
By combing my hair thick and shining,
I wish a deep, eternal affection for my husband.
By combing my hair long and shining,
I will never forget my parents’ love.
The pictures shows the rice terraces in Longsheng and a few of the nice ladies making the tourist business of showing her hair.