{"id":17971,"date":"2018-03-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skydivemag.com\/new\/?p=17971"},"modified":"2020-11-05T09:49:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T09:49:10","slug":"2018-03-08-bad-hair-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/2018-03-08-bad-hair-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad HAIR Day?!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Pixie's
Bad Hair Day
Model: Pixie ~ Photographer: Milko ~ Hair: Wiggaz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ah, the feel of freefall on your face, your hair whipping in the wind, fantastic!\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

…wait a minute! Long hair whipping around in freefall is a bad thing.<\/strong>..<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Aside from the Gordian knot that results from 120mph of wind whipping your hair around, hair that is very long can actually cause a malfunction when you deploy your parachute. This is highly unusual but it has happened, and to very experienced skydivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s one jumper\u2019s story of a hair-main entanglement that turned into a hair-main-reserve entanglement…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main-Reserve-Hair Entanglement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“So I taught AFF that morning, and thought the weather would be bad, so my hair was down. The weather got good enough for fun jumps, so I threw in one long braid down my back, and went for a fun jump. I tucked it in for exit. I knew the strap on my Z1 wasn’t doing its job very well lately, but no big deal, right… never been a problem before!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I reached for my handles, and thought, this is going to hur<\/em>t”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“It obviously came out during freefall. When I deployed, throwing my pilot chute powerfully to the side like I always do, I felt my head get jerked. I reached back and felt my braid COMPLETELY wrapped in bridle and risers. My d-bag was banging around on my right shoulder. I reached for my handles, and thought, “this is going to hurt”. I was fully prepared to have my hair ripped out of my head. After I cutaway, I felt it towing from my head. I’m not sure if my three rings released. So I thought, “this is all I’ve got” and dumped my reserve into it, and it inflated quickly and beautifully. Then all of my stuff, my risers, bridle, bag, and hair wrapped around my right reserve steering toggle 2 or 3 times.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was so busy with that mess, I forgot to pay attention to my handles. I eventually had the thought “Did I keep my handles?” I saw that I did, and I put them both in my left hand, and released my left toggle to steer toward the DZ. I was over the SW intersection with many obstacles. I put the left toggle in my teeth to fly straight back to the DZ. I worked on the right toggle and got it out around 300 feet. My landing was pretty uneventful. Karl quickly realized what happened, and came over to help untangle my main-reserve-hair entanglement.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My hair still hurts quite a bit, but mostly I’m grateful.. I know I’m lucky to be here… I almost always had two braids, with my hair parted in the middle. If that had happened with a small braid I’m fairly certain it would have torn it off. That day I had only one bigger center braid, and that’s the only reason it didn’t I think. I lost some hair, but not all of it!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What is to be learned? Tuck your hair in, every single time, and be sure it will not come out. I now have extra wide hair bands that I have sewn for myself and my friends to make sure that will never happen again.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Report by Merriah Eakins<\/strong><\/em> (D 22063)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tuck your hair in, every single time, and be sure it will not come out”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n