These pretty textiles are made out of human hair
Like fingernails, human hair is something that’s considered normal and fine when it’s attached to the body, but gross in any other context. Hair clogs our drains. Seeing a single strand on our plates is grounds for returning food at a restaurant. And after it’s cut off at salons and barbershops, it’s promptly swept up and thrown away.
Hair is usually destined for the dustbin, but what if it could be reused as a raw material for design? One designer is exploring some novel uses for hair, including making a biotextile that feels like wool.
Designer Laura Oliveira collected clippings at two Portugese hair salons for her master’s thesis in product and industrial design at the University of Porto in Portugal. (The hair was donated anonymously after the two salons signed informed consent forms.)
Oliveira received several large bags’ worth of hair that she cleaned and sorted by color, texture, and length. Over the course of the project, she developed what she calls a “hairbraium,” an archive of categorized human hair samples that she used as her materials library.
Hair as a material
Fashion designers have used human hair before (see Turkish designer Dilara Findikoglu’s Spring 2023 collection). In fact, hair has deep roots as a material. Textile made from human hair that dates to the Middle Ages has been found in Peru. Today, Dutch company Human Material Loop turns hair into yarns and textiles.
Oliveira made her biotextiles by applying various textile techniques to hair, like carding, wet felting, and needle felting. The felted biotextiles were slightly scratchy, but structured and dense, “similar to coarse wool,” she says. She also experimented with other, more unconventional methods, like combining hair with glycerin, agar-agar, and pine resin. When combined with pine resin, which is usually brittle when solid, the hair absorbed it and improved its resistance and structural stability.
“This project taught me a lot, both technically and conceptually,” Oliveira tells Fast Company. “Through the research and experimentation, I realized that hair has impressive properties and could potentially be applied in multiple fields, from agriculture and textiles to art and product design.”
In addition to the fabrics, Oliveira turned hair into needle felt balls, tchotchkes, and filling material that could be used inside pillows and puffer jackets. With resin, she says hair’s potential as a raw material is mainly for artistic and design objects, where the goal is to create stronger bio-based composites that explore new aesthetic and tactile possibilities.
“Overall, these materials are still in an experimental stage,” she says. “While they show interesting potential, they would require further research and testing to improve their mechanical performance, durability, and consistency before being considered for larger-scale or real-world applications.”