Untangling and Unboxing Hair Wreaths and Hair Art

Family Hairlooms

In the Victorian era, wreaths were made from the hair of the deceased and their relatives. These wreaths were placed on the coffin during funeral services and later hung in the family home…but, don’t get too creeped out. Not all hair art is as dark or as morbid as this—it was actually quite popular!

Families would take locks of hair from each member and braid it into interesting designs and display it prominently in the home—sometimes under glass, sometimes as a free standing structure, sometimes even as jewelry! By the time the 1800s rolled around, hair art was so common that it was regarded as tasteless trash.

Trash? What!

Today, Ripley’s has welcomed plenty of kooky hair artists into our dysfunctional family!

Hair-raising insect by Adrienne Antonson

Artist Adrienne Antonson from Asheville, North Carolina, bends and weaves real human hair into remarkably detailed insect artworks. On her praying mantis, moths and flies, she uses glue to mold the hair and to hold it in place. Adrienne collects locks of different-colored hair from close friends and family, and is interested in using her creations for art therapy, working with people who have lost their hair through illness.

This curly character is a “B”!

Mayuko Kanazawa, a design student from Tokyo, Japan, created her own bizarre font by photographing the hair on her friend’s leg, arranged to look like letters of the alphabet. Mayuko came up with the idea after her class was challenged to make a font without the aid of a computer, to ensure no digital trickery was involved!

Hair you wear!

Dress designer Thelma Madine and hair stylist Ryan Edwards, both from Liverpool, England, teamed up to create a dress made from 820 ft. of human hair. It took 300 hours to make, weighs 209 lbs. and uses hair extensions containing more than 10,000 individual hair wefts. The $75,000 dress also features 1,500 crystals and 12 underskirts!

To Be Continued…

Don’t even get us started on dog hair art—coming to an unboxing episode near you this summer!