Recycling Stray Hair
For the Truly Fashionista

Two designers came up with very creative ways to reuse hair, feline and human: working independently, they developed a full line of beauty products that strike anyone for their originality.
Taiwanese hair salon owner Tsai Shiou-ying had already created some unusual brooches, a life-size pineapple and a rat sculpture, all using hair left over from her daily work.
But nothing pleased her as much as the pair of high-heel shoes she’s recently completed. It took the hair of three people (not all, just the hair they had already decided to cut, we hope) and a full month to complete a single pair.
Since Tsai is admittedly flat footed, and can’t wear stilettos, and has no intention to sell any of her creations, everything is for display only. That is, until mold takes over; then it has to be discarded. It may make for some good compost but don’t quote us on that.
Then there’s Heidi Abrahamson, who makes jewelery and does sell them. In celebration of the National Hairball Awareness day (no, we had no idea there’s such a day) last month, she created some one-of-a-kind jewelery pieces made out of hairballs. Yes, cat hairballs.
Her chokers (she had to make at least one, isn’t it obvious?), rings and earrings do look classy (just like the furry creatures who were made to “donate” raw materials for their manufacturing). It’s all handmade and finally crafted and, if that’s your thing, 100% organic.
Now, someone please explain why do we need to be reminded about hairballs again? That is, besides the fact that good grooming is important for both felines and humans, and in the case of cats, may actually cause stains on your rug, if they throw them up? Email the editor, please.
The idea of creating objects with hair is not new, of course, as it’s been on everybody’s head since the beginning of times… We’re really sorry but we couldn’t resist actually saying this.
But take Huang Xin, for example, another hairdresser but from Beijing. A couple of years ago, he created some intricate models of Tiananmen Square and the buildings that surround it to celebrate the Chinese revolution. It’s pretty impressive and accurate, including the portrait of Chairman Mao.
As to whether he meant to also make a veiled allusion to the infamous events of June 1989 at the square, when an unknown number of protesters died or went to prison, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to be saying it out loud.
Not far from China, in Vietnam, another hairdresser (do you really need to ask?), Kim Do, created a tunic made from human hair, gathered from 54 different people, including some popular local artists.
The tunic employed one million meters of hair and it’s really beautiful, in a Guinness World of Records kind of way.
For some hairy reason (our going bald, perhaps), we couldn’t write such a post without mentioning the 60s, the musical, and Lennon’s hair coat. There, we said it. Now go and get a rag: the cat threw up on the rug again.