Every now and again , you scan something from chronicle that ’s almost too perfect to be true . compositor’s case in point : the long face fungus in history belong to a man by the name of Hans Langseth .
Langseth was bear in Norway in 1846 , but immigrated to the United States and end up in Kensett , Iowa , where he spent much of his lifetime as a farmer , husband , and don . He first started develop his whiskers at age 19 for a beard - growing challenger and then , you could say , he just kept running .
Before his end in 1927 , Langseth made a request to his children to abbreviate off his face fungus after his open - casket funeral and bring through it . The tiddler comply , and after many years , they donated it to the Smithsonian , where it ’s now kept in storage . The exact length of the artifact is up for debate . Guinness and the Smithsonian say it’s17 feet 6 inches , though a site from the phratry of Langseth claim they lead a chunk of the beard with the man himself , and the total was really more like18 foot 6 inches .
Nils C. Jorgenson , Wikimedia Commons // Public arena
That site also claims that at one point , Langseth had decide to skip off his face fungus , but switch his mind in the process , accounting for some narrower portions . Because beard pilus can only produce so long before it take up to die , Langseth basically dreadlocked the ends — matting and coil it , and even rolling it around a corn cob to conduct it with him . Avideobelieved by the sept to be authentic , evidence just how unwieldy the beard could be .
At one stage , “ King Whiskers ” was part of a touring sideshow exhibition , but he eventually fall by the wayside because people would jerk at his acquirement , trust it to be a farce . It was n’t all bad though . Anthropologist Dr. David Hunttold the Smithsonian : " fit in to family penis , he did like it when the Fat Lady washed his beard . "
[ h / t : Fusion ]
