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Ed. Note: Todays’ guest blog star (and our good friend) Dr. Michael Reed knows hair care. The Manhattan-based dermatologist and hair loss expert has devoted his life to helping folks keep the locks on their heads. He’s even got a new book out on the topic: Women’s Hair Loss: The Hidden Epidemic. Today, Dr. Mike’s taking us through the ten craziest uses for discarded locks.
1. Make History! (or at least a weird representation of it)
Earlier this year Beijing hairdresser Huang Xin celebrated the 60th anniversary of Communist China’s founding with a replica of the buildings and monuments around Tiananmen Square – all made entirely of human hair.
2. Stop an Oil Spill!
Hairdresser (and hair enthusiast) Phil McCrory was watching CNN coverage on the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill when he noticed the fur on the Alaskan otters soaked with oil. He began testing how much oil he could collect with the hair clippings from his salon and invented the Hair Mat which helped contain an oil spill off the coast of San Francisco in 2007.
3. Clothe the World (or at least a model)
Croatian designers at Artidjana Company used 165 feet of blond hair to make a dress worn by model Simona Gotovac. The outfit was featured at a fashion show in Zagreb. But Artidjiana isn’t the only one. Julia Reindell one upped the designers by creating an entire fashion line made from human hair for an awards show at the Royal Academy of Art in Piccadilly.
4. Build a Sturdy Chair
Former hairstylist-to-the-stars Ronald Thompson was cleaning hair clippings on the set of Batman Begins when he realized how sturdy a piece of hair was as opposed to fiberglass. He decided to create an eco-friendly alternative to traditional fiberglass molds and designed the stiletto chair made entirely of human hair.
5. Use It on the Vegetable Garden
Calling all gardeners! Need a mulching source that is renewable? Human hair makes an excellent garden mulch. In fact, Phil McCrory (of oil spill clean-up fame—what can I say, the guy loves old hair) also patented a hair mat to be used as garden mulch.
6. Hang it from Your Walls
In 2006 Dartmouth College commissioned Chinese artist Wenda Gu to display monument-sized banners woven entirely out of student’s hair. To line their walls, the school held a hair-drive and sent 300 pounds worth of New Hampshire hair to China.
7. Donate It To Your Fan Club
Elvis Presley shaved his manly mane when he went into the service in 1958. More than five decades later those shorn locks showed up for auction to the highest bidder at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago. The hair was apparently a gift from Presley himself to the President of his fan club, Gary Pepper.
8. Turn It Into Jewelry
During Victorian times preserving a lock of a loved one’s hair as jewelry was all the rage. A lock of hair was immortalized in a pendant and worn as a necklace or a brooch. Although this practice went out of popular fashion at the turn of the Century, some artists continue to devote their lives to hair jewelry today.
9. Donate It to a Museum…
If you’re driving through Independence Missouri any time soon you may want to stop by Leila’s Hair Museum. The walls at Leila’s are adorned with artwork featuring human hair with over 400 antique hair wreaths, hatpins, necklaces, bracelets, broaches and rings all made with human hair. Additionally, Leila claims to have hair from Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, George Washington, Aaron Burr, JFK and John Lennon.
10. Or Simply Steal It for your Personal Collection
In 2007 an Australian baggage courier was jailed by a Melbourne judge for stealing women’s hair from their suitcases. Rodney Lyle Petersen pleaded guilty to 50 counts of theft of women’s hair that he collected from the baggage of Qantas passengers. Petersen would apparently pull over in his courier van and rummage through the lost or delayed luggage that he was returning to Qantas passengers. He collected hair from brushes in the suitcases and put them in plastic baggies.
Be sure to check out Dr. Reed’s new book: Women’s Hair Loss: The Hidden Epidemic published by luxury hair care supplier Lock & Mane. Click here to order, or follow the banner link below.
Comments (13)
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Hairy cow!
posted by John on 10-19-2009 at 11:50 am
I remember seeing one of the wreaths, like in #9, when I was a child in an antiques shop. Women would tat (like crocheting) hair from members of their famlies…the oldest hair from the great aunts and grandmothers and then work down to the youngest, fairest hair from the great-grandchildren. It was interesting to see the different shades of hair, and in modern times, would be a great collection of your family’s DNA. It wasn’t creepy at all if you think about it…it was more of a kind of family album.
posted by skz on 10-19-2009 at 12:31 pm
It wasn’t that long ago that Neil Armstrong got into it with his barber over who owned his hair after it was cut. The barber was saving the clippings and planned on selling them. I’m not sure how it turned out but they went to court and I think they determined that even after it was cut, the hair belonged to the original owner(i.e. the person who grew it on their head).
posted by Nick on 10-19-2009 at 12:40 pm
Love this…I think we forget a lot of hair history…like if you met a famous person back in the 18th C day you didn’t ask for their auttie you asked for a lock of their hair….and now we know what those peeps did with it.
posted by JPNYC on 10-19-2009 at 12:42 pm
#10 is completely creepy. OK, they’re all a little creepy.
posted by Wendy on 10-19-2009 at 12:47 pm
The Museum of Funeralry Customs in Springfield, IL had some interesting examples of hair jewelry from Victorian times. Fascinating place, which sadly, I just found out, closed earlier this year.
posted by Marty on 10-19-2009 at 1:31 pm
BETTER IDEA: Donate it to Locks of Love or a similar charity (Little Princesses, Sofia’s Hair 4 Health, Wigs for Kids, Pantene Beautiful Lengths, Zichron Menachem) that uses it to provide hair pieces for cancer and alopecia patients.
posted by Cy Guy on 10-19-2009 at 1:45 pm
Right on, Cy Guy. That’s what I do. We do have a wreath of my father’s grand-aunts, hair. I think she was his grand-aunt.
posted by Sara in AL on 10-19-2009 at 1:59 pm
@Cy Guy (or anyone else looking to donate hair to Locks of Love): LOL touts its reputation on providing wigs to children with cancer. Unfortunately, human hair wigs are not given to cancer patients as it is considered a “temporary condition”. Instead, *synthetic* wigs are given to the children most people desire to donate their hair to.
Who gets human hair wigs? Children with alopecia. Still a noble cause, but all wigs are sold on a sliding scale based on the parents’ income. They are not even donated!
The vast majority of the hair that is donated is sold for profit to commercial wigmakers and hair extention manufacturers. This would be fine, in theory, as to offset the cost of production, shipping, etc. But consider this: LOL collects enough hair to make roughly 10,000 wigs a year, yet they made less than 350 wigs in 2008. That is a lot of hair that is unaccounted for.
LOL is supposed to be a non-profit organization, but they have refused to release their financial records as required. They have been reported to the BBB numerous times for this infraction and have not met the requirements to be considered a reputable charity organizations.
If you choose to donate your hair, please research the company you are planning to give your hair to. LOL is definitely not the best company to give that precious gift to.
posted by tambalina on 10-19-2009 at 2:53 pm
SKZ, sorry to say, but you can only collect DNA from the roots, not the hair itself. Good idea though!
posted by bryan on 10-19-2009 at 3:11 pm
I once heard of someone who incorporated some of her own hair into a hand-made wool sweater. I personally don’t find it creepy, but the question in my mind is “why???”
posted by PunKid on 10-19-2009 at 6:13 pm
My daughter donated 14 inches of hair when she cut it (it had been waist-length) to Zichron Menachem. First it was braided, tied on both ends, then cut (after which the hairdresser cleaned up the cut) and we mailed it in. It was a very different experience- it made me think at the time of all the hair that usually gets swept away. Never thought of cleaning oil spills with it.
posted by Estee on 10-19-2009 at 9:51 pm
This is a pretty amazing article, and I am shocked and how many creative ways people have used their excess hair, but one good option that you didn’t mention is that Locks of Love is always looking for good hair donations.
posted by Matt on 11-1-2009 at 10:22 pm