The acrobats who were suspended by their hair survived a terrifying accident when a mechanism broke, but their hair held strong. INSIDE EDITION looks at the strength of human hair.
She's the acrobat hanging by her hair and she's talking about the heartstopping moment when she and her friends plunged 35 feet to the ground.
Appearing on Good Morning America, Samantha Pitard is the first victim of the circus disaster in Providence, Rhode Island to speak.
Pitard said, "We heard a huge popping sound, and then just plummeted to the ground. I asked, 'Is everyone alive?' and they were able to tell me, 'Yes, everybody's alive, everybody is conscious.' Which is incredible."
She spoke of her injuries, saying, "I got a couple of small fractures on my spine, which I actually really can't feel, so that's kind of nice. I got a cut on my head, so I got three stitches, and I bit my tongue really hard when I came down. Everyone, thankfully, is expected to fully recover which we are incredibly happy about."
Pitard, who's known as a hairialist, also opened up about how the strength of her flowing red hair is the result of a dedicated regimen.
"I use really nice shampoo, take lots of vitamins, eat healthy. The big thing is to take good care of it. You can't dye it. You can't use product in it. You can't blowdry it. You can't straighten it. It has to just be natural," explained Pitard.
INSIDE EDITION's Diane McInerney spoke with New York dermatologist Dr. Lisa Airan about the surprising strength of human hair.
Dr. Airan told McInerney, "If you harness all of the hair on your head, it can hold up to 12 tons, or the weight of two elephants."
Watch the Interview and Incredible Demonstration
To demonstrate how strong Diane McInerney's hair is, we placed heavy encyclopedia books each weighing about 10 pounds in a book bag and passed it over to Dr. Airan who placed it on McInerney's ponytail. The experiment was actually tougher on the doctor than McInerney's hair, who had to put it down because it was too heavy for Dr. Airan to hold up.
Dr. Airan said, "Hair is inherently strong, but there are a lot of things you can do to weaken the hair. Like coloring the hair, and processing the hair."
Good advice that any woman can use for stronger, healthier hair. But you may want to think twice before trying a circus aerial act.
