David Bowie's Hair Might Fetch More Than $4000 at Auction This Weekend

When he died from liver cancer last January, David Bowie’s net worth was estimated at $100 million—and that wasn’t even including his hair. Now, a lock of the late English singer and songwriter’s blonde mane is expected to sell at auction this Saturday for more than $4000, the Associated Press reports.

Beverly Hills auction house Heritage Auctions is in charge of selling the valuable snippet. Bidding starts at $2000, but sellers say they’re anticipating a much larger sum. A portion of those proceeds will go to a good cause: The Soi Dog Foundation, a dog and cat rescue organization in Thailand.

The clip of Bowie’s tresses is approximately 2 inches long, and tied together with blue thread. It was cut from his coiffure when a woman who made wigs for wax figurines at Madame Tussauds in London was tasked with replicating Bowie’s signature 1983 'do for a figure being created for the museum. She took a hair sample from the singer to match its exact color, and kept it as a souvenir. Today, it’s affixed to the upper left corner of a black-and-white framed photograph of her and Bowie. (The relic comes with a signed letter from the wig-maker explaining the hair snippet’s back story.)

Surprised that anyone would actually shell out more than $4000 for a lock of a singer’s hair? You shouldn’t be. All celebrities have to do is touch (or even breathe on) an object for it to fetch big bucks at the auction block.

Case in point: Scarlett Johansson’s used tissue, which she blew her nose with while appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2008, raised more than $5000 for charity. And in 2004, a piece of Britney Spears’s used gum, which she spat out backstage at a Toronto concert, reached a hefty $14,000 in eBay bidding. We’re not sure what someone would do with any of these items, let alone Bowie’s hair—put it under a glass case, or weave it into Victorian-inspired mourning jewelry, perhaps?

Renato Torii, Flickr // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

[h/t Associated Press]