Graham Sayers has always had a little pizzazz.
“One thing we’ve come to expect from Graham even when he was a little guy was to expect the unexpected,” said his uncle Rod Sayers.
“Graham was always that’s the fun guy at the party,” his co-worker, Shinahkoh Couture adds.
Sayers is already a bit of a celebrity in Port Alberni and at Twin City Brewing where he works. He turns heads because of what he has on top of his.
“I always have had big hair,” he said. “I’m the only one in my family that has hair like this, everyone else has straight normal hair but I’ve got this so I’m just going with it.”
And he’s going with it all the way to a possible Guinness World Record for the largest Afro.
The 47-year-old has been in touch with the Guinness people and hopes to break the current record held by an American teenager since 2017.
“It’s 23 out and 17 up and then they’ll do a total wrap-around of 177 to beat the record,” said Sayers.
That’s 177 centimetres.
As a First Nation man, his hair is even a mystery to him. He did a DNA test and confirmed his father is aboriginal and his mom is from France.
“People told me, they said ‘You can’t have an Afro, you’re an Indian, you can’t have an Afro’ and I was like ‘what do you mean I can’t have an Afro? This is what I’ve got so this is what I’ve got to shine with,'” he added.
And shine he is and has.
“He actually used to be my mail carrier and I’d see him with his ‘fro’ and his big glasses that are tinted and his sweatbands on and I was like that guy knows what he’s doing, I love it,” said co-worker Sabah McLellan.
“You know I’ll be doing my picking walking down the street, and people know I’m going for the record and people are yelling out their cars saying good luck,” Sayers added.
He hopes to make the world record official on Aboriginal Day, June 21 at Twin City Brewing.
Graham Sayers is attempting to capture the Guinness World Record for the largest Afro. (CHEK News)
Dean Stoltz
