HUMAN HAIR

Human hair is something we throw away a lot. People go to the hairdressers and get hair cuts or, as a person with long hair, you find your strands left behind in a hairbrush or find them in the shower drain. This is mostly seen as waste, but it is also a raw material. Realising this, inspired me to go and search for ways to use human hair.

Human material loop is an organisation which uses human hair and turns it into textiles. They collect hair from hair salons and then tread the fibers so they can eventually be turned in to durable and natural textiles. This project is lead by Zsofia Kollar, but there are actually a lot of people working with or researching human hair. That is also how I got into contact with Sanne Visser, who is doing PhD research in London. She also collects hair from hairdressers, treads it and then makes super strong rope out of it. I participated in her workshop at the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam and experienced what it is like to make ropes with human hair. The piece of rope that I made with Sanne, inspired me to make a shoe with (potentially) human hair rope.

Since human hair is no commodity (and it should never become one!), currently I am still collecting hair. However, in order to experiment with the idea of human hair rope, I worked with a jute rope as a replacement. Rope can be used in a similar way than the plant material used for basketry. After the rope is made, it can be braided around the shape of the foot.