A woman on a train appeared to levitate, much to the bemusement of her fellow passengers, whilst travelling around in China recently. Honestly, the video below might leave you with more questions than answers, but you should probably still watch it anyway:
So, the woman – who turned out to be an acrobat, which makes a bit of sense – was seemingly hanging by her hair from one of the handrails on the train in Shanghai.
Naturally, this came as something as a shock to the other folks on the train, so one of them started to film her.
The Russian acrobat, a woman called Darina, seemed to be minding her own business as she gently swung back and forth with the rocking of the trains, even crossing her legs and tapping away on her mobile phone.
Darina is a performer in the Shanghai Circus and says that she was just using a bit of free time to brush up on her skills.
Fair enough, that’s one way to keep up with it.
She said: “I have been practising this move for half a year. I want to remind everyone that it was a dangerous trick and should not be tried if untrained.”
A timely reminder there not to hang from anything – let alone the bars on a moving train – using your hair.
The likelihood is you’ll get hurt, and it’s almost a certainty that you’ll get embarrassed.
Many of those who’ve seen the short clip were worried that she was going to fall or do damage to her hair and scalp.
After all, this isn’t exactly what it should be used for.
However, Darina is a trained professional and shared the stunt on Douyin – sort of like the Chinese version of TikTok – to draw attention to the fact that she has become remarkably adept at the skill she’s been practising for six months.
She has also shared a number of clips of her hanging by her hair in other situations and has been left shocked and surprised by the amount of attention she has received for them.
Darina has been working as a circus performer since 2013, but this particular skill - known as hair hanging - has been around for much longer.
Originally conceived in China, it is traditionally performed with the hair wound around a ring or a hook, and the performer is then suspended or swung around, often while performing other tricks of the circus trade.
The hair has to be carefully placed to bear the weight and performers must take particular care to ensure that their hair is strong.
Still, it’s probably not worth trying for yourself, as it is definitely best left to the professionals.
Topics: Weird, World News, China, Russia
Tom Wood