I’m Curious About Recycling Human Hair

A long train of events brought me here, but it all began with one question. Why do we throw our hair away? 

Hair is something that nearly every human on Earth grows. It doesn't require any extra land, water, or energy for us to produce, yet most of our fallen hair goes into the drains and trash daily. It's garbage, rubbish. 

Does our hair have any use beyond our heads? Indeed it does, or can. Hair has many unique qualities to draw upon; it's solid yet flexible, lightweight, absorbs oil and water, provides thermal insulation, and degrades slowly. 

I've come to find that recycling and crafting with human hair has an intriguing historical past. But most of these hair-working methods are now unfamiliar and nearly extinct. Why is this?

It's a messy web to navigate all the religious, scientific, and psychological entanglements hair has in every aspect of our lives. There are plenty of books and gobs of information about hair's cultural fashion and how we personify our identities through it etc. Still, very little is known about its use as a fiber beyond our heads. 

My research explores how our cultures (past and present) shape our use of hair as a material resource.

The contemporary irony that we spend a lot of time and big money (cut, color, extensions, wigs) on our hair while it's on our heads, yet it is instantly worthless as soon as it is shed or cut, cannot escape me. I want to challenge this perspective. 

If we are concerned about the daunting environmental issues facing our planet, like plastic pollution, global warming, and the need to find alternative solutions… here is a natural global (more importantly local) sustainable resource right in front of us. Literally on top of us! What if we were to consider our local needs and the impact that voluntary hair-waste recycling programs could have on our communities, economies, and planet Earth?

There is a developing resurgence in examining human hair waste streams for various applications, including; oil mats, ropes, textiles, fertilizer, and jewelry, to name a few. I will start sharing what and who I've found with you soon.

Additionally, I have been learning traditional and folk-art methods of artistically working with hair, such as table braiding, wirework, and flatwork. Some of these methods are nearly lost arts, as only a handful of people still know how to do them.

I’d like to teach and share more resources about these methods, hopefully through online videos and/or classes, so that they can be accessible to everyone who desires to learn about how to use hair waste in various ways; from simply composting it in your garden to making intricate woven jewelry.

It is my hope that by sharing all of this information about hair's historical and modern uses, it might inspire us to deconstruct our current perspectives about hair waste and conceive a new future surrounding its use as a resource in our lives.