Jessica Martinez’s stunning Afro, measuring an incredible 190 cm (6 ft 2.87in) in circumference, has officially earned her the largest Afro in the world title, entering her into the Guinness World Records book.
Jessica takes over the record from Aevin Dugas, who has had a remarkable 15-year reign as holder of the largest Afro in the world.
But while Jessica is still processing it all, this wasn’t just about measurements. For Jessica, this moment represented a lifetime of embracing her natural hair after years of struggling with relaxers and straightening. “To see someone like me, with hair like this, in the Guinness World Records book, is just so absolutely incredible,” she says in an interview with Katherine Gross in an article reported on Guiness World Records website.
“When I found out that I broke the record, I was actually in shock because it didn’t quite sink in yet, it didn’t quite feel real,” she adds.
The emotional weight of the achievement hit her deeply. “The younger version of me would be so proud of myself,” Jess reflected. “I can do hard things, and this was a really really hard thing for me to accomplish.”
The meeting between these two incredible women wasn’t just about hair, it was also deeply about representation, self-love, and showing young people with textured hair that “their hair is beautiful just the way it is.”
For Jesssica, meeting Aevin therefore, made the experience even more special: “The handover wasn’t competitive – it was pure celebration.
Jessica’s journey to natural hair began in college in 2014, when she looked in the mirror after straightening and realized: “this is not you. There’s nothing flat about you. You have a lot of personality!” She went cold-turkey on heat styling that day.
But Jessica she has a message for anyone with big dreams: “I would much rather try and fail, than not to have tried at all. If you want to attempt a world record, please get up and do it, because it will just bring you through to a whole new world that you didn’t even know was possible.”