Astronaut Nichole Ayers letting her hair loose in gravity. (ISS/NASA / SWNS)
By Dean Murray
One astronaut has been having a hair-raising time since arriving on the .
NASA's Nichole Ayers has wowed space fans with her flowing locks since she arrived on the orbital platform on March 16.
While many astronauts choose to braid or use ties on their hair, the 36-year-old has opted to let it float free in microgravity.
The Expedition 72 Flight Engineer has been seen in images carrying out onboard scientific tasks, including processing blood tests to explore how microgravity affects human physiology.
Astronaut Nichole Ayers at the International Space Station. (ISS/NASA via SWNS)
Astronaut Ayers is used to controlling airborne elements, having logged over 1,400 flight hours as a pilot, including more than 200 combat hours during operations like Inherent Resolve.
The spacewoman grew up in Colorado and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a minor in Russian.
She later earned a master's degree in computational and applied mathematics from Rice University.