The real life Rapunzel

The real life Rapunzel: 4½-ft tall eight-year-old has 3ft-long hair

She is  just eight years old, but Bohdana Stotska’s hair is nearly as long as she is tall.The schoolgirl’s three-foot mane takes two hours to style - but she refuses to have it cut.Bohdana, who cites fairy tale character Rapunzel as her inspiration, said: ‘I love my hair because nobody’s hair is as long as mine.‘I made the decision to let it grow when I was four. I said: “Mum, I don’t want to cut it anymore.”’Her mother Olga now has to spend half an hour a day combing and plaiting her daughter’s golden locks so they do not get tangled.But the 39-year-old banker’s biggest chore is washing Bohdana’s hair once every 10 days with a strengthening shampoo and conditioning treatment, which takes two hours.Olga, who moved to London from Ukraine last September, said: ‘We don’t use chemicals, we use simple stuff for babies.‘But letting it dry naturally is impossible. The biggest expense is my time.’Olga said her daughter’s luscious locks were not as popular in their native Ukraine. ‘But her classmates here got really excited and now Bohdana describes her hair as her “key feature” and tells me not to touch it,’ she said.‘She wants to be popular, she wants to be the centre of attention.’Privately-educated Bohdana, who speaks Ukrainian, Russian and English, said that although some people are jealous of her hair, most people admire her looks.The four-and-a-half foot student said: ‘People tell me they want to have hair like mine and my friends try to copy me.‘In Christmas cards my classmates tell me how much they like my hair.‘They always want to touch it or plait it.’Olga, who lives in Old Street, believes the length of Bohdana’s hair will soon surpass her height, as she refuses to get it trimmed.‘Her hair grows quicker than she does,’ she said. ‘Bohdana is tall for her age and grows nearly one centimetre a month but her hair seems to grow at an even quicker rate.’Olga said one of the reasons she has let Bohdana grow her hair is because of a dream she had ‘When I was pregnant I closed my eyes and imagined my daughter and she had very, very long hair, just like Bohdana has now. They looked exactly the same,’ she said. But Olga is hoping the novelty of the attention will soon wear off. She said: ‘Bohdana has a strong character but I’m hoping after some time she’ll say, “I don’t want any more attention mummy.”‘She will stop at one point, we don’t want her looking ridiculous. She will have to grow up as a normal kid.’