The Long and Short of the Seven Sutherland Sisters

Merging into an entertainment powerhouse in 1881, the Barnum and Bailey Circus became revered around the country as home to the fantastic, shocking, and unbelievable. Among the colorful cast of performers in the late 19th century one act initially seemed out of place. Taking the stage dressed in all white and armed with various instruments, seven sisters entertained the crowds using their voices to fill the rooms with hymns, parlor songs, and ballads. The spectators, although appreciative of the sister’s musical talents, sat anxiously awaiting the grand finale of the act. It was not a special song, it was not an impressive vocal exercise, and it was begun not by the sisters but by their father who instructed his daughters to turn their backs to the audience before saying the words all attending were waiting for. At the command of “Girls, let down your hair!” the room filled with gasps, cheers, and applause as the sister revealed the main event that had made them millionaires: their combined total of 37 feet of long, dark, hair.

The Seven Sutherland sisters pictured with their father

The seven sisters delighting spectators with their long locks were Sarah, Victoria, Isabella, Grace, Naomi, Dora, and Mary Sutherland and while they became superstars in the 1880’s their childhood was anything but glamourous. All born between 1845 and 1865, the sisters and one brother lived with their parents on a turkey farm in Cambria, New York which, like the family, was just scraping by. On top of their already threadbare appearances of ragged clothing and no shoes, their mother Mary would coat her daughter’s hair with a horrific smelling ointment claiming that it would make the girl’s hair grow long and strong. The girl’s hair did in fact grow but the smell emitted from their long thick braids only alienated them further from anyone they came into contact with. One place where the sisters shined was in church where it became apparent that they all had a talent for singing and playing musical instruments. Once their mother died in 1867 the girl’s father Fletcher Sutherland began to look into avenues to make money off of his daughter’s musical abilities.

The first incarnation of the musical act was called “Sutherland Concert of Seven Sisters, and one Brother” and the family toured around Niagara County earning high praises for their performances with special attention going to Naomi who by the age of thirteen had developed a powerful bass singing voice. By 1880 the one brother had left the act and the sisters found themselves in New York City performing on Broadway were they earned reviews that were positive but that greatly focused on their hair. As their fame began to expand past the borders of New York so did their opportunities and the sisters spent the summer of 1881 touring the south performing in Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. Locale did not matter, whenever the act came to a close and the sisters turned their backs revealing their immense amount of hair the reaction was always a potent mix of amazement, shock, and awe.

Naomi Sutherland and her hair

The rise to fame was fast and by 1882 the Sutherland Sisters were undisputed celebrities. The eldest, Sarah, had the shortest hair at three feet long and always kept her bible close. Victoria had seven feet of hair that dragged behind her as she walked and had a taste for the finer things in life. Isabella and Grace each carried approximately six feet of hair. Naomi had a mane of five and a half feet that could completely envelope her entire body like a cloak and when braided it measured four inches thick. Dora was typically seen as “the pretty one” and her long tresses measured approximately five feet. The youngest sister Mary had hair measuring six feet long and doctors blamed the weight of the hair pulling on her head for her erratic and unstable mental state. It became very clear to Fletcher Sutherland that although his daughters did possess great musical talents it was their hair that was filling the seats and making them stars. He began to work on the idea of creating a hair growing tonic similar to the one used by his wife and selling it to those eager to have long flowing hair. Using his former career as a preacher to try to gain the trust of potential buyers he claimed that he was previously bald before using the tonic. It was a good story and he was a convincing teller but the hair tonic did not become an in-demand product until he joined forces with a man named Harry Bailey, suitor of Naomi and nephew of the co-owner of the circus Barnum and Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth. By 1884 the sisters were signed with Barnum and Bailey with P.T. Barnum referring to them as “the seven most pleasing wonders of the world.”

Mary Sutherland and her hair

The creation of a hair tonic claiming to be responsible for the sister’s long flowing locks generated a deafening buzz. Fletcher, looking to create an image of authenticity, sent samples to a chemist who analyzed it and stated “I hereby certify that I found it free from all injurious substances. It is beyond question the best preparation for the hair ever made and I cheerfully endorse it.” Demand for the tonic went through the roof and by the end of the year sales reached $90,000. The following year Naomi Sutherland and Bailey were married and he took over the management of the act, the production of the tonic, and set forth on building a financial empire based on the sister’s hair.

Bottle of hair tonic

The Sutherland sisters never could have predicted that the hair ointment they so detested as children would make them fabulously wealthy. Later found to be a mixture of witch hazel, bay rum, salt, magnesia, and hydrochloric acid, the Seven Sutherland Sisters’ Hair Grower was priced up to $1.50 a jar and a well-crafted marketing scheme aimed their product toward the higher class. A message from the sisters on every label reading “To our patrons: The enclosed preparation is manufactured and used by ourselves and we recommend it as the best in the world” and the addition of their father’s name as “The Reverend” Fletcher Sutherland on the bottles gave the tonic credibility in the eyes of the buyers and by 1890 over 2.5 million bottles were sold. The sisters had an active role in the promotion and marketing of their brand and expanded their product line to include scalp cleaner, hair coloring, anti-dandruff products, and lotions. Slogans written by them began to appear in ads including “A woman’s hair is her crowning glory” and “Remember ladies, it’s the hair, not the hat that makes you beautiful.” They embarked on promotional tours around the country ensuring that their images appeared in countless magazines and that they were never far from anyone’s mind. Wherever they traveled they drew a crowd including appearances doing live hair modeling in New York City storefronts and hotels where streets became so congested with fans that traffic would come to a halt. Obsessions with the hair ran high and people began to make extravagant offers for strands or pieces to be cut from their heads. One offer promised $25,000 to Victoria if she cut all of her hair and a jeweler who purchased one strand of hair for $25 hung it in his shop window with a seven carat diamond hanging from it. Less than five years after launching their products the sisters earned over three million dollars and cemented themselves as icons.

Label for the Seven Sutherland Sisters’ Hair Grower

While business was booming, the sisters faced a tragedy when their father passed away in 1888 and in 1893 the seven of them made the decision to all live under one roof. They returned home to New York and built a massive home on the former site of their family cabin. The mansion, which served as both a home and a business headquarters, boasted a castle-like exterior, fourteen rooms, imported furniture, marble bathrooms with running hot and cold water, crystal, and imported carved hardwood at every turn. Staff and each sister’s personal maid had a list of obligations including brushing and detangling their hair every night and caring for the multitude of pets who were treated like absolute royalty to the extent that upon their death each one was given a formal funeral and had obituaries printed in the newspapers. Although the home stood as a physical testament to the Sutherland’s incredible wealth and gave the impression of lives of ease, their time in and around the mansion was filled with unfortunate happenings.

The Sutherland mansion

Before the home was completed Naomi died in 1893 without reaching the age of forty. The death left the remaining sisters completely devastated and they planned for a $30,000 mausoleum but it was never constructed. Needing a replacement for their deceased sister while on tour, the others hired a Pennsylvania resident named Anna Louise Roberts who had hair measuring nearly nine feet long. One of the frequent faces at the home was a man named Fredrick Castlemaine, a twenty-seven year old who appeared to be pursuing Dora but then shocked the family by marrying forty-year old Isabella instead. A morphine addict with the frustrating habit of shooting the spokes out of wagon wheels from the Sutherland’s front porch, Castlemaine killed himself while on tour with the sisters in 1897. Although he died on the road, the sisters brought the body back to their house where they placed him inside a glass case and had him lay in state. The sisters would gather around the body and sing to him every day until after ten days the smell became so strong that the local health officials forced a burial and he was interred in a mausoleum in Lockport, New York. Isabella visited the site every night and carried out one-sided conversations with the tomb for over two years until she married another man.

The Castlemaine mausoleum 

As the twentieth century arrived and brought new trends in haircare and styles, the sisters found themselves facing hardships both in business and behind closed doors. At the age of fifty Victoria married a nineteen year old man and the union led to them being evicted from the home by the other sisters. They never reconciled and she died in 1902 in her early fifties. As with the death of Naomi, someone was hired to replace Victoria but in the following years Mary’s erratic mental state further deteriorated. Increasingly antisocial, paranoid, and prone to yelling spells and curses at family members, Mary was often locked into a room in the mansion until the fits passed. Her behavior was troubling, but so were the new haircuts coming into style, super short and sleek bobs being made popular by the flappers. The sales of the Sutherland Sisters’ Hair Grower began to plummet.

By 1914 the family fortune was nearly gone and it was in that same year that Isabella died nearly penniless due to a scheme orchestrated by her 2^nd husband who had her sell her shares in the family company and then attempt to create a new hair tonic of their own, an endeavor that failed miserably. Five years later in 1919 the sisters would face one of their most difficult years yet with the death of Sarah who, like Castlemaine, was kept in the house after death until her burial was forced. Later that year the three remaining sisters made a trip out to California hoping to pitch their life story to a Hollywood studio for a film deal. An agreement was never made and Dora was killed in a car accident during the trip leaving Grace and Mary inconsolable and destitute, so much so that they did not have the money to claim Dora’s body and her cremated remains were left in Hollywood. 

Dora Sutherland at the height of her fame

Grace and Mary attempted to keep their business alive but there was no hope for their hair growing products in a world that now wanted short hair. The mansion, now falling into deep decay, was abandoned in 1931 and within five years the Sutherland Sisters business was closed for good. As the business went up in smoke, so did the mansion which burned down in January 1938 taking with it any remaining documents, furniture, or artifacts that were left behind when the sisters departed it for the last time. Mary, with her fragile mental state becoming more and more fractured, was finally committed to the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, where she died in 1939. The last sister Grace lived the remainder of her life much in the same destitute state that she lived in as a child before she died in January 1946 at the age of 92. Strangely, many of the sisters and family members were buried in the Castlemaine mausoleum when they died but by the time Grace passed away there was no room for her so she was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave.

For several decades the name “Sutherland” conjured up images of extravagance, beauty, fame, and fortune but the bright flame burned out quickly for the seven sisters who wrapped the world in their hair. They were at the forefront of today’s practices where celebrity endorsement could make or break a financial future and where names became brands. They were household names that shoved world leaders off of the newspaper page and could arguably be dubbed the first musical “super group”. And yet, armed with all the riches they could ever imagine, the sisters seen ‘round the world all but disappeared into obscurity leaving behind the advertisements, publicity cards, photographs, and glass bottles that would outlive their fame and serve as relics to a beauty empire that was quite literally “cut short”.