Hair accessories made of human hair

[sammie883]

Okay I remember watching the antique road show a couple years ago and there was this woman who had some early 1900 hair accessories made of human hair. She had pictures of the women who made them too. These women would grow their hair really long and use the hair that fell out to make the hair things. I thought this was really cool so I tryed to google it but I can't find anything about it. So I was hoping some of you know what I'm talking about.

[Hue]

It was common some time ago for women to save shed hair in hair receivers (http://www.go-star.com/antiquing/hairreceivers.htm) and use it to make jewelry, as ornamentation for boxes and things, etc. I haven't any specific websites to recommend, but searching on that term may help.

Hair recievers are recognizable as little pots with a thumbish-sized hole in the lid.

[sammie883]

Oh thank you Hue this is neat. I didn't know it but my mom has one of those. I was wondering way there was a hole on top of a jar.

[Carolyn]

Hair receivers are kind of a cool thing to collect if you are a hair junkie like me :) I've been collecting them for quite a few years.

[shrimp]

In Ulyssess, Joyce talks about a woman's 'brushings' (I think that was the word strangely enough I'm not trawling through the book to find the quote! :wink:) being sold. Right now I wouldn't mind being able to do that to help pay the gas bill :eyebrows:

Actually Joyce talks about hair reasonably often.

*geeks slowly away*

[Hue]

:)

Geek-a chic-a rules.

[Flaxen]

I remember the episode of Antiques Roadshow very well. Most hair jewelry is mourning jewelry, but it isn't all. I have a pocket watch chain made of human hair. People are still making hair jewelry, and you can check out The Victorian Hairwork Society's website. Please google it because there is also a section to sell one's hair, and we don't link to haircutting sites. :smile:

[QMacrocarpa]

I'm going to give this thread a nudge, because today I stumbled across an online book called:

"Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair Work, Dressing Hair, Making Curls, Switches, Braids, and Hair Jewelry of Every Description" (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38658) (originally published 1867)

There's a fairly small section (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38658/38658-h/38658-h.htm#Page_246) about fixing hair in fancy do's while it's still attached to your head (with assistance from hair NOT attached to your head ;)), but mostly the book's about making complex braids for jewelry and the like from no-longer-attached hair. After the long section of increasingly tricky braiding patterns, there is a section here (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38658/38658-h/38658-h.htm#Page_122) with more basic information about how to do it.

And I couldn't find a quote in Ulysses (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4300) about "brushings", but I did find one about "combings": "Ten bob I got for Molly's combings when we were on the rocks in Holles street." (I <3 ebooks for finding quotes!)

[Jing]

I have a necklace made from my hair and my sister has a brooch made from hers. There's a village near where I grew up that's famous for the production of traditional hair jewellery. The closest thing I've seen to hair acccessories made from hair are those fake hair clip-ins/elastics.

[maria_asa]

I have a cross made from my mother's and my hair and I've also made a cross for my mother from my own hair. My mother have several items made from her grandmother's hair.
Making jewelery from hair was quite big in Sweden during the 19th century but not anymore.
Here's two pages with pictures of hair work and some information if you're interested:
http://www.sparr.dk/
http://www.myranshemslojd.nu/sv/H%C3%A5rarbetskatalog.html (this one is in Swedish but at least you should be able to see the pictures)

[PurplePenguin]

Very interesting thread, I never would have guess that women used to keep their shed hair. I think I am going to research more about the hair jewelry because that seems quite cool.