Crew members aboard China's Tiangong space station recently helped each other get their hair cut in what could be called one of the tallest hairdressers in human history. Forefront tells us about the hair-raising haircuts.
Last Friday, China's Manned Space Agency uploaded a video showing taikonauts Tang Shengji and Jiang Xinlin telling each other using a special device that trims the hair and vacuums it to prevent hairs from floating around the station and getting stuck in unwanted places.
It should be noted that this is not the first haircut in space: already in 2013, American astronaut Mike Hopkins was photographed receiving a haircut from his partner in the 37th crew of the International Space Station, cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, using a similar machine. Since then, quite a few more haircuts have been conducted aboard the International Space Station. Therefore, the haircut on the Chinese space station is not the highest in history – as it orbits the Earth at an average altitude of 389 km, compared to an average orbital altitude of 417.5 km for the International Space Station.
The Shenzhou 17 crew has been on the space station for 55 days, and is expected to remain there until the arrival of the 18th crew on April 18 – that is, another 120 days. During this period, they are expected to cut their hair more than once, as part of the actions to maintain a basic human lifestyle even outside of Earth. In the video, another such action can be seen, with mission commander Tang Hongbo washing his head with special equipment: a first hair cover containing shampoo, a second hair cover containing water to wash off the shampoo, and then wiping with a towel.
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