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40 Years Ago God Told an Indian Man Not to Cut His Hair “Blessing” Him with Six-foot Dreadlocks

Alison Lesley · Jul 18, 2019 · 3 min read

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40 Years Ago God Told an Indian Man Not to Cut His Hair “Blessing” Him with Six-foot Dreadlocks
Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
40 Years Ago God Told an Indian Man Not to Cut His Hair
Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
He hasn’t washed hair since!

If dreadlocks have piqued your interest, a man in India has taken dreadlocks to the extreme[/tweetit] with his own. The man, Sakal Dev Tuddu, is 63 years old and is from the Munger district, which is part of the state of Bihar.

40 Years Ago God Told an Indian Man Not to Cut His Hair “Blessing” Him with Six-foot Dreadlocks[/tweetthis]

Sakal Dev Tuddu hasn’t washed or cut his hair in 40 years. He now enjoys six-foot-long dreadlocks. He refers to them as a “blessing from God.” Sakal shapes his hair on top of his head like a turban and has even explained this particular shape by saying that his hair spontaneously wove itself 40 years ago into a dreadlock, or what he calls a “jatta.” He interpreted this to be a divine blessing.

Sakal’s neighbors call him Mahatma Ji as a sign of respect. He has also said that God had told him to give up smoking, drinking, and to not cut his hair. Women and men with ‘long’ hair spend a lot of time grooming their hair and keeping it clean. Sakal tries to keep his hair clean when he goes out by tying it in a white cloth so that it doesn’t trail on the floor behind him.

While many would think that there isn’t much else to Sakal Dev Tuddu, the man is also quite renowned in his district as a healer. He provides treatments that are home-made for couples without children. People will travel to meet him and get pictures of him from far and wide. But all the fame hasn’t gone to Sakal’s head. His neighbors have said that he is a humble person.

He lives with his wife Rupiya Devi who has no issues with hair, his three daughters, three sons, and seven grandchildren. He has worked in the forest department for 31 years.

A Florida woman, Asha Mandela currently holds the world record for the longest dreadlocks. In 2018 at 55 years old Asha’s hair was measured at 110 feet (34m).

While Sakal and Asha have both done what many wouldn’t dare to, they’re hardly the first. In the ninth century, Viking king Harald 1 swore an oath to not to comb or cut his hair until all of Norway was his. He was known as ‘Shaggy Harald’ at that time. Harald did become known as ‘Harald Finehair’ once he won the kingdom.

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