Indiana woman who accidentally set hair on fire with cigarette accepts ‘Village Idiot’ award

Woman accepts ‘Village Idiot’ award for hair blaze

STORY, Ind. — A woman whose hair caught fire when her hairspray-coated follicles ignited as she lit a cigarette is now a southern Indiana town’s reigning “Village Idiot.” Dani Hamm earned the honorary title this month by getting the most votes from regulars at the Story Inn, a restaurant and bar about 15 miles east of Bloomington where she’s a bartender.

The title awarded every April comes with a $100 bar tab at the rural inn.

Hamm was driving to work in February when she lit up a cigarette and then heard a “whoosh” as her hair ignited.

She wasn’t injured because she used her hands to douse her hair, which she had coated with a liberal layer of hairspray.