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As fashion becomes more sustainable, we’ve noticed that an entire collection of select fabrics has hit the market, from mushroom leather to seaweed yarns and everything in between. A possible fabric of the future that may surprise you?Human hair.
Javiera Decap, a student at the Royal College of Art, has become interested in the use of human hair in her work, after noticing its similarities to the wool of long-haired sheep from her local Norway. “Our neighbor is a farmer and has tons of wool bags. I asked him if I could use a little bit,” the designer told Vogue. “I wanted to use this express thread because it looks like human hair. I went back to the United Kingdom and my tutor said, “Why don’t you use genuine human hair, because it looks a lot like it?”
While Dilara Fındıkoğlu has in the past incorporated human hair into her paintings (see looks 26 and 27 from the designer’s Spring 2023 collection), Decap’s technique differs in that she treats it very similarly to any other fiber. The master’s student asked in a London salon if they could use the hair waste, which was normally thrown away. Then they started treating it, cleaning it with conditioner (“because a lot of the hair I have is already processed or bleached, so it’s dry”) and straightening it. After that, they combined human hair with Norwegian wool by felting the fibers in combination (which involves employing special needles to prick the fibers repeatedly, until they become firmer) before dyeing them with a semi-permanent, permanent dye that they use on their own hair.
A knitted dress made with Human Material Loop fiber, made from human hair.
The result? Printed felt dresses and furry skirts, which can never be said to involve human hair. In fact, Decap says the reactions of other people who discovered the pieces were made of human hair were interesting, to say the least. “Some other people are like, ‘Oh, ew, I don’t need to touch your clothes,'” the designer explains. “It’s pretty funny, because human hair is about more than the wool I use. “
In fact, it was to try to understand why other people are so repulsed by human hair that Zsofia Kollar decided to create Human Material Loop. “I have a very strong fascination with human hair,” says the founder. Once the floor is cut in a barbershop, she is very neglected; many other people also find it very strange and disgusting. So I asked myself: how can we inject a new price into this material?
Upon discovering how polluting the textile industry is, Kollar saw the prospect of human hair as a more sustainable garment of the future, especially because of its structural similarities to wool. In fact, the designer and researcher has developed a green chemical procedure to turn humans into hair into a wool-like fiber that can be used in existing machines. “There are no colors, we create the curl and increase the friction, so the fibers adhere better in combination,” he explains. “If you’re not an expert, you probably can’t tell the difference between wool and human hair after treatment. “
Human Loop Material fiber, made from human hair, after dyeing.
The strength of human hair, thanks to its protein structure, as well as the fact that it can be dyed gently, makes it ideal for the textile industry. In addition, their carbon footprint is much lower than that of most virgin materials, given that they are nothing more than waste lately. ” We just did our first LCA [Life Cycle Assessment]: our CO2 effect is 99 times lower than cotton, door-to-door,” Kollar says. “If we expand it, it’s actually going to be a game-changer. From the crib to the door, we have virtually no effect.
Currently, Human Material Loop sources hair directly from salons, but plans to collaborate with waste control corporations in the future. Even if human hair does not raise the same animal welfare considerations as wool, there is still a need to ensure that the chain of origin is “100% transparent. “
In fact, Decap has taken an interest in the dark side of the human hair industry in his research. There have been reports that women in the Global South are being exploited either for their own hair or to act as hair creditors for poverty wages. , although it is legal, it is surely not regulated,” says the designer.
However, if ethically sourced, human hair has a great chance of becoming a sustainable garment of the future. If a primary impediment can be overcome, of course. ” The challenge in devising it is to get other people to settle for this curtain as something new, not something disgusting,” Kollar concludes.
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