History with Phil: How 7 sisters' flowing tresses built an empire

The Seven Sutherland Sisters were a remarkable family of women from upstate New York who captured the public’s imagination in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born between 1845 and 1862 in Lockport, New York, the sisters — Sarah, Victoria, Isabella, Grace, Naomi, Dora and Mary — grew up on a small turkey farm near Niagara Falls. Their father, Fletcher Sutherland, was a preacher, and their mother, Mary, reportedly used a homemade ointment to promote their hair growth, which resulted in the extraordinary tresses that would eventually make them famous. By adulthood, the sisters’ hair was astonishingly long, some reports claiming that the combined length of all seven sisters’ hair reached 37 feet.