This Japanese doll's hair keeps growing. Total hoax, or a biological basis?

Factual Questions
21

Not so much the doll is weird, but its owner looks like an epicene Hitler of uncertain race.

Thanks, zombie thread!

22

cckerberos, ages ago, already provided some factual information, but since some time has passed I did a quick search of the Japanese side of the web.

It turns out that there are several similar dolls. The explanations given are:

  1. A spirit is residing in the doll. I call Poe’s Law on this one.

  2. As was mentioned here, human hair was commonly used to make dolls. There’s nothing esoteric or tragic about this; it’s just a cheap and abundant resource. Hair absorbs moisture, and weather changes could account for small changes in length.

  3. Human-hair dolls are manufactured by folding the hair in half, to secure it to a thread mesh. This is essentially the same technique used for wigs. If the doll is shoddily-made or the mesh comes undone due to time, or someone pulling on the hair, then the folded hair can slip, and effectively “grow.”

The doll mentioned by the OP is likely the one known as o-kiku. The two pictures at the bottom of the page were taken 40 years apart and are purported to show just how much her hair has grown. :dubious:

23

It doesn’t look any different in length to me, in the picture on the right. Am I just not seeing it because it’s only a small amount? I might not be examining it in great enough detail, due to the fact that the doll looks like it is about to come to life and kill me.