The Man With the Longest Beard Ever Recorded

Langseth was born on July 14, 1846, in Norway. He was the fourth of five children, and he and three of his brothers immigrated to the United States as adults. They eventually settled in Kensett, Iowa, which has a population of less than 300 people to this day.

He began growing out his beard at age 19 in order to compete in a beard-growing competition. Langseth wanted to continue growing his beard despite the fact that it was not the longest beard in the world. Langseth never shaved his facial hair despite becoming a farmer and fathering six children.

His wife passed away at age 40, only six months after the birth of their last child. Langseth and his family relocated to Glyndon, Minnesota, where he found farmland to support his family through farming.

The problem with growing the longest beard in the world, however, is that beard hair can only grow about five feet before it dies. If you mat the dead hair together into coil-like dreadlocks, however, it adds a bit of length and strengthens the beard. This is what Langseth did, and it subsequently created a timeline of sorts for his life thereafter.

Hans Langseth’s Last years

In 1922, at a ceremony in Sacramento, California, the beard's record as the longest in the country was confirmed. A group of Sacramento beard enthusiasts called the Whiskerinos, formed in 1922 as a way of commemorating the California Gold Rush, put on the contest. Its members wore period clothing and grew long beards to resemble gold rush miners.

Zach Wilcox from Carson City, Nevada, finished in a distant second place, behind Langseth. The length of his beard was 12 feet, compared to Langseth's then-impressive 17 feet. As the winner, Langseth received $300 and a return flight home.

In his later years, Langseth moved to North Dakota and joined a traveling circus freak show to display his signature facial hair. After some time, he grew bored of people tugging on his beard to verify its authenticity.

You might consider that having so much hair on your chin will hinder your regular tasks. Langseth overcame this problem by wrapping it around a corn cob and placing it in his vest pocket. At least once, he must have become bored of it since he began to trim the beard, only to have second thoughts and stop.

Langseth died in 1927 with an 18-and-a-half-foot-long beard. As per Langseth's final desire, his surviving children shaved off nearly all of his beard for posterity after his funeral. The 17.5-foot specimen was initially stored in an attic, but was subsequently donated to the Smithsonian.

From 1967 to 1991, the Smithsonian displayed the longest beard as part of a physical anthropology exhibit. Now, it is stored away and only brought out a few times a year when Langseth's descendants visit.

Langseth was undeniably dedicated to defending his title despite the difficulties a beard of this length would present.

Hans Langseth is occasionally mistaken for Hans Steininger, who also had a long beard, but Steininger was the mayor of Braunau am Inn, Austria, in the middle of the 16th century.

On September 28, 1567, a major fire in the city sparked widespread alarm. Typically, Steininger kept his huge beard hair coiled up and stored in a pocket, but amid the commotion, he was running around with it loose. In the midst of the confusion, he tripped over his own beard and fell down the steps, breaking his neck. He was killed by his own beard.

Over 450 years after Steininger’s death, his beard is preserved, currently on display at the District Museum Herzogsburg in Branau. Since then, the artifact has been authenticated and chemically maintained so that future generations can continue to appreciate this enthralling story.