Jewellery and art made from hair

[Catatafish]

Hello everybody,

I was reading the Beauty Brains, and found out that there is a museum containing art and jewellery made from human hair. I thought it was pretty unusual and wanted to share it. The website seems to be broken right now, but here is a small article about it. It also contains a link to a book available on amazon.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/55314/strange-states-missouris-hair-raising-hair-museum

What do ye think about it? At first I thought it was kind of icky, but now I think it shows quite a bit of dedication to collect your hair and make it into a present. I wonder what my DBF would do if I presented him with a hairy gift?!

Has anybody read the book?

[Entangled]

Here's (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=124951) a thread discussing hair art; I've found it very fascinating to consider. Looking at the historical sentiments, and the vast amount of time and dedication it took to make hair art, I quite admire this form of artwork; it's a strange but endearing bit of the Victorian age. And, it's lasting--hair takes a looong time to decompose. It's certainly a way of remembering or being remembered.

[Ingrid]

I don't think using human hair is any different to making things out of fur or horse hair :shrugs: It looks stunning and requires a lot of skill.

[Catatafish]

Thanks Entabgled :)

I've just had a look at bits of the book mentioned in the article, and is indeed fascinating.

Just to let you know, that link doesn't appear to work, it just takes me to a blank page.

[CaranDulin]

Oh my, I hadn't heard about that until now. Fascinating stuff! I'll look into it some more...

[Entangled]

I tried to fix it; we'll see if it works.

[Amapola]

Yeah... link appears to be weird for some reason. I do remember talking about this before. I'm a horsehair braider by profession and have occasionally been asked to work human hair, which I tried to do several times... so now, with that experience, I know enough to say "No, thank you" every single time someone asks me to do that. I do know several techniques that work on human hair, but really, wow - it's incredibly time-consuming and no one appears to be willing to pay me for my time, so it is not worth it to me. I'll stick to horsehair, thank you anyway! :)

ETA: we posted at the same time and I checked again... still weird. :shrug:

Another Edit: YAY! It works now, hoorah! :D

[QMacrocarpa]

Somewhere I posted a link to this e-book (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38658) about hair work (originally published 1867). It has lots of patterns for braiding different types of cords from hair, sketches of different kinds of jewelry incorporating hair, as well as a section on making switches and other hair pieces to incorporate into a hairstyle, and sketches of some hairstyles that one might wear on an elegant night out in the mid-19th century.

[Amapola]

Oh, nice book! Thanks for the link, QMacrocarpa!

[lunasea]

One of my neighbors has a rather elaborate flower picture made out of hair. It's a wonder to behold.

[Tosca]

My textiles teacher once showed me pictures of a bra made out of human hair...

Art *shakes head*

[Amapola]

:shocked: That would not be fun to wear...

[Catatafish]

Thanks for the link QMacrocarpa, that looks cool :)

Tosca, was is some sort of very mild torture device? I can only imagine how itchy it would be!


I wonder if it will ever come back into fashion? These things do seem to come around in cycles. And it's so easy to buy human hair these days. I definitely wouldn't have the patience though.

[Kyla]

My textiles teacher once showed me pictures of a bra made out of human hair...

Art *shakes head*

Similarly there are hair shirts, which were used as a form as asceticism/religious self harm. They were called Cilices I think.

[Baby_doll]

I think this would be a super cool way to use my shed hairs and stuff, I just have no idea how/ what I could make.

[Baby_doll]

I've been using my sheds In the garden as fertilizer

[Amapola]

I've been using my sheds In the garden as fertilizer

Well that is definitely easier than saving your sheds, getting them all lined up so that the ends are lined up at the top of the bundle, getting enough that are all the same length that you can have 80 hairs in the bundle, and then putting together 16 - 24 bundles to make the braid.

Yeah. That's really how they do it. It's "easier" to use a cut off chunk of hair where they were all cut on one end so that you have one end all lined up, then pull the hairs out from the other end, counting them and tying them in bundles with the same amount of hairs in each. Using sheds would be incredibly hard... but doable of course if one truly wanted to!

[Catatafish]

It's "easier" to use a cut off chunk of hair

I don't think it will be come popular on this forum if that's the case then.
I still think it is quite cool though.
Once my hair is long enough that people start asking me when I will donate it, I'll tell them I've growing it to have it made into a tapestry instead!

[Amapola]

Oh no! Cutting off a hunk of hair will not be popular; but I do point out, in those days, some people would grow hair out and sell it - it was a way of making money if you were poor. Not only that but at least some of this stuff was made from the hair of a beloved family member who had died and presumably would not mind if you cut the hair off! :shocked:

[Catatafish]

Oh no! Cutting off a hunk of hair will not be popular; but I do point out, in those days, some people would grow hair out and sell it - it was a way of making money if you were poor. Not only that but at least some of this stuff was made from the hair of a beloved family member who had died and presumably would not mind if you cut the hair off! :shocked:

I suppose the whole death thing would have made a lot more hair available. But surely people used to make love trinkets to? As least I hope they had a chance to while both partners were alive.

AND, plenty of people sell their hair these days too. I suppose it is just more sought after for extensions and wigs.