‘Hair hanging’: A rare – and painful – circus act

NEW YORK – “Hair hanging” is an incredibly painful, highly specialized aerial performance in the circus world, confined to certain families who pass their secrets about the tradition down through generations of performers.

Eight circus acrobats plummeted to the ground during such a performance at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus Sunday in Rhode Island when the apparatus they were hanging from fell. Experts say the rare performance art – in which acrobats literally hang from the scalp as they fly through the air and perform various tricks – is practiced by fewer than a dozen circus families around the world, though it has existed for more than a century.

Each acrobat’s hair is wrapped around a steel cable ring attached to rigging that hoists the performer upward. And therein lies the secret: The specific technique used to secure the hair to the rigging is closely guarded.

“We all keep it to ourselves how we tie our hair and how we do it,” said Christopher Williams, a 24-year-old hair hanger who counts some of the injured performers among his friends. “No one really knows the secret.”

The hair must be tied to the rig in such a way that the load of the person’s weight is evenly distributed across the scalp. Otherwise, performers can literally scalp themselves accidentally or fluid can pool in one section of the head.