Hairwork

Hairwork, or jewelry or artwork made of human hair, has appeared throughout the history of craft work, particularly to be used for private worship or mourning. From the Middle Ages through the early twentieth century, memorial hair jewelry remained common. Hair, considered to be a remnant off the person it was cut from, also has often played a part in myths and legends; in a Swedish book of proverbs, one can read that “rings and bracelets of hair increase love” (Vadstena stads tankebok). One example can be found in Denmark, at Rosensborg’s palace, which is a bracelet of precious metal with a simple braided lock of hair - a gift from King Christian IV (1577-1648) to his queen. Another example would be the rings commemorating the execution of King Charles I of England (1600-1649), which circulated among his faithful supporters. Other famous people who owned hair jewelry include Napoleon, Admiral Nelson, Queen Victoria and her large family, Christina Nilsson and Jenny Lind.

Hairwork is the art of making jewelry and other decorative objects from human hair. "Hairwork" is also used to refer to the finished objects. This craft was most popular and widespread in Europe and the United States in the latter half of the 19th century. Practitioners were both professionals and amateurs. Around World War I, fashions changed, and the craft almost died out. There are still (as of 2016) artists and craftsmen who make jewelry and other objects with human hair as the main ingredient, and there are people who master and practice the craft in connection with tourism. There are separate associations and museums for hairwork, and the custom of using jewelry and wall decorations from human hair has become the subject of cultural historical research in the 20th and 21st centuries, while the works have become sought-after antiques for collectors.

Before World War I

Human hair has been the subject of many superstitions, and locks of hair and hair jewelry have been both fetishes and fashion items in many cultures. The custom of wearing a lock of hair in memory of close friends, lovers, or family members has been widespread for many centuries, and continues into the 21st century, including in the form of locks of hair in memory books about a child's first years.

It is uncertain when people began to make hair ornaments. From the 13th century there is an account from England that noblewomen wove their own hair into gifts for their chosen knights, and from the same time there is a recipe for how to increase the love of the one you love: "When you make a ring out of the hair you love, your love increases." 

According to scholar Marcia Pointon, the use of hair in memorial jewelry probably began in the Middle Ages, and it seems to have been a purely Christian custom. She suggests that the custom may have originated from a particular interpretation of the Book of Revelation, whereby a lock of hair became a sign of a possible reunion with the deceased in the afterlife. 

Mourning jewelry containing the hair of the deceased is known from the 14th century, but was not common until the late 17th century. In the 18th, and especially in the 19th, century, such jewelry became a fashion, and is known from Europe, the United States and Australia.  One of the reasons why hair jewelry became so popular may have been that the Napoleonic Wars led to a shortage of gold in Europe in the first decades of the 19th century. 

Kathleen M. Oliver argues that the popularity of hair jewelry was partly a reaction to the Enlightenment's emphasis on the rational, technical, and commercial over the spiritual, psychological, and personal, and the trend was aided by the rise of Romanticism in the 19th century. 

In 18th-century hairwork, human hair was most often just a part of the jewelry, for example a lock of a lover's hair in a locket, or the hair of the deceased in a mourning jewelry, often as a background for a miniature portrait, or a miniature skeleton in a memento mori jewelry, which was supposed to remind the survivors of their own mortality.

In the 19th century, the custom of wearing hair ornaments developed. They were no longer just commemorative or mourning ornaments, but became a fashion in their own right and in many cases a commercial commodity. The design of the ornaments in a particular period could be influenced by the same fashion trend, and be inspired by sales catalogs and women's magazines, but the ornaments were still unique and had sentimental value, because they were most often made from the hair of a dear friend or family member. 

The fashion for hair jewelry lasted for a couple of decades into the 20th century, but interest waned from around 1900. During and after World War I, both clothing fashion and interior design trends changed, and hair decorations no longer fit in.

Europe

In Europe, there is much evidence that hair work originated in France. The country was the main center for the human hair trade, where most wigs were made, and where large hair auctions were held. 

After 1789, the first year of the French Revolution, the opulent powdered wigs of the nobility came to an end, and wigmakers faced leaner times. Their knowledge of hair treatment, and some of the devices they used in making wigs, could be used to develop the art of hair ornamentation.

By 1867, there were 40 hairdressing workshops in France. These employed 50 draftsmen and 500 female workers to produce jewelry and pictures from human hair. 

The oldest known textbook on the craft was published in Germany in 1818. The terminology in this book is largely French. Also in the Swedish Konsten att göra hår-arbeten from 1833, terms are used that indicate that the knowledge comes from outside, for example: "garcettefläta", "engelsk fläta", and "tambour" for the work board itself.

In England, brooches from the 17th century have been preserved, and here hair ornaments were popular until the 1880s, including among royalty.

In the 19th century, mourners in France and England, especially upper-class women, had to follow several rules regarding dress and jewelry, which were supposed to be discreet. Jewelry was often made of the black jewelry material jet or from the deceased's hair. The mourning period could last up to four years. Hair jewelry was among the few pieces of jewelry Queen Victoria allowed the court to wear during the mourning period after the death of Prince Albert in 1861. She herself wore mourning until her death in 1901, but when she permitted the wearing of silver jewelry on official occasions in 1887, the mourning period for Prince Albert was considered to have ended, and the wearing of hair jewelry was thereafter seen by many as tasteless.  

In the romantic, sometimes sentimental, Victorian era, hair was both a sign of love and respect. At its peak, around 1840–60, it was almost an obsession to own, make, or give away locks of hair or jewelry and objects made from hair. An elaborate portrait of Queen Victoria, full-size and made entirely of human hair, was a great success at the Paris World's Fair in 1855. The Queen visited the exhibition the same year it opened, and was also at Versailles, where she gave the Empress Eugénie a bracelet made from her own hair. 

Although hairwork existed prior to the Victorian era, it was this period that saw it flourish as a trade and private craft in mourning jewelry such as lockets, rings, and bracelets; or mourning hair works for the home. These included frames of loved ones locks in braids, wreaths, or woven into floral patterns; or "mourning scenes," like gravestones or willow trees, depicted by hair placement. When not related to mourning, the practice was still performed in a commemorative or honoring fashion, with hairworks being produced to celebrate the hair-givers personal achievements, or to signify a bond between friends, family, and loved ones. It was a common skill taught to young women of the period, sometimes being mixed with needlework.

The Victorian Period saw a rise in mourning practices due to its popularity through Queen Victoria, and wearing hair jewelry was seen as a form of carrying one's sentiments for the deceased. Unlike many other natural materials, human hair does not decay with the passing of time. Hair has chemical qualities that cause it to last for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years. 

Additionally, by the 19th century many hair artists and wig makers had too little employment after the powdered wigs, often worn by noblemen of the 17th and 18th centuries, went out of fashion. The period of sentimentality, characteristic of the Victorian era, offered these craftsmen a new opportunity to earn their income working with hair. Early hair jewelry was usually made for the higher classes in cooperation with goldsmiths, producing beautiful and expensive creations of hair mounted in gold and often decorated with pearls or precious stones. Pieces constructed with precious materials by artisans were naturally very expensive and it was not until the middle of the Victorian period, when instructional guides became available, that hair jewelry became popular with the lower classes.

Workshops where these fashionable items were made existed across Europe. Buyers of human hair traveled the countryside and purchased hair from poor peasants, sometimes in exchange for scarves, ribbons or other small luxury objects. In addition to the needs for hair jewelry, there was still a need for great amounts of hair for braids and switches that women wanted to purchase for their coiffures. Most hair jewelry, however, was made from a person of special interest's hair, whether that was a famous figure or - most often - a family member or friend.

In contrast to the expensive pieces of hair jewelry crafted by artisans, many women of the 19th century began crafting their own hairwork in their homes. In America, popular magazines of the period, like Godey's Lady's Book, printed patterns and offered starter kits with the necessary tools for sale. Books of the period, like Mark Campbell's Self-Instructor in the Art of Hair Work offered full volumes devoted to hairwork and other "fancywork," as predominantly female crafts were known at the time.

In Europe, various groups of women also took up the craft in their homes. For example, the women of Mora, Sweden, became experienced in hairwork and made it possible for groups other than the very wealthy to afford hair jewelry. They had no money to buy expensive findings, so they mounted the jewelry with wooden beads that they cleverly covered over with hair. One of the most famous of these women was Martis Karin Ersdotter.

Another reason for the construction of hair jewelry in the home was a lack of trust in commercial manufacturers. The concern was that the hair used in the jewelry would not be the hair that had been given to the jeweler, having been substituted with other hair. Individual hair-working companies attempted to counter the suspicion by producing adverts that stressed that they used the hair sent to them. These adverts may however have added to the level of suspicion since they tended to at least imply that other companies did not.

Entire jewelry sets were made from hair from family members, lovers, or friends, and popular women's magazines encouraged young ladies to make their own hair jewelry, to protect themselves from dishonest dealers replacing their beloved's precious hair with worthless hair from a stranger. 

Scandinavia

In the Danish royal family, there are hair pieces from around 1600, including a ring and a bracelet, which were gifts from King Christian IV (1577–1648) to his queen, but it was not until a couple of hundred years later that jewelry and images made of human hair became fashionable.

There were both amateurs and professionals, mainly women, who mastered the art of making hairpieces in all the Nordic countries.

Sweden

The small town of Våmhus in Dalarna became a center for hair work from around 1830 until around World War I. 

Agriculture and cattle breeding were the main livelihoods of the population of Upper Dalarna, but the farms were small, the soil poor and the earnings poor. Travelling for work, so-called "herrarbete", was a common sideline. Already from the end of the Middle Ages, people migrated and offered their labor, or they sold homemade products. At the end of the 18th century, after years of poor growth and poverty, the women of Våmhus began to make rings for sale. They made the rings from horsehair, wound around a core of a harder material, ax or whalebone.  Whalebone was initially purchased in the umbrella workshops of the larger towns, later also in the trading stalls in Våmhus. Girls from Dalarna, "dalkullor", traveled both to the rest of Scandinavia and to several European countries and sold rings.

These taglringen are considered to be the beginning of their hair work, which became an important source of income throughout the 19th century. In the places the girls visited during their travels, they received orders for jewelry and decorations made of human hair and learned how to make them, probably with wigmakers or barbers as teachers. They also went on work trips to the rest of Sweden, so it is possible that the art of hair work came to Dalarna from Stockholm, where there were professional hair artists already around 1800. The girls are referred to as "hårkullor" in most Scandinavian sources.

In Mora and the surrounding area, hairdressing was most widespread from around 1875 to the turn of the century. Only in Våmhus, which in 1865 had around 475 households, was there a hairdressing shed on at least every second or third farm. 

Both the travel records kept in Sweden, and the travel and county passes entered in the local passport records where they stayed, make it possible to see the extent of the hairdressing women's work trips. In the period 1860–1880, 2,733 hairdressing trips were made from the Våmhus area. One of the Swedish hairdressing women is said to have been a " court supplier " of hair ornaments to Queen Victoria. 

When World War I began, it became difficult for the hairy-haired people to continue their migrations, and their work trips ceased. 

A statue of a hair-haired woman has been erected in Våmhus to honor the young women who helped the village survive in difficult times. The statue was made by Arvid Backlund. 

Norway

The hair weavers also traveled far into Norway, and eventually more Norwegian women and men learned the art of hair work from them, directly and indirectly. In the 19th century, there were both itinerant Norwegian craftsmen and permanent residents who undertook hair work. The permanent hair workers known to us were, here as in neighboring countries, mainly women. Gauslaa mentions two sisters in Valdres, who had the farm's old butter churn converted into a braiding apparatus, and Bergsåker writes about women who made hair work for sale, including a couple of women in Haugesund, who braided watch chains, necklaces and bracelets. One of them advertised in Karmøyposten in 1884 that she undertook to "braid" watch chains. 

In Rogaland, "austmenn" (=men from Telemark), who had participated in the spring herring fishing, could go from farm to farm and track down girls who were ready to marry. From the girl's hair they would make a necklace as a wedding gift for the boy she was going to marry. This was seasonal work, after the fishing and before the spring harvest.

A watch chain made of women's hair was something of a hallmark of a skipper who sailed the seven seas, as opposed to a skipper who stayed in the fjords and on the coast. 

Hair objects in Norwegian museums show that both the custom of hair images and hair jewelry was widespread. In many cases it is unknown who made the works, but the catalogue cards show that the hair images have hung in Norwegian homes, and that the jewelry was worn by Norwegian women and men. 

The jewelry exhibition "Old Jewelry in Norway 1550–1900" in Oslo in 1928, showed 52 hair-worked jewelry from the period 1790 to around 1850. Some of the jewelry, which also contained gold or pearls, was made by Norwegian goldsmiths, a couple of them were made by Jacob Ulrich Holfeldt Tostrup, later "royal court and order jeweler". 

Denmark

In Denmark too, there were professional and amateur hair workers, both permanent residents and itinerant. Passport records show that the Swedish hair weavers often travelled around Denmark, and tools and hair work found by the Danish craftsmen clearly show that most of them had learned the art from the Swedes. Wobble sticks were also used by some to braid hair cords. 

In 1852, a regulation came into force. It was no longer permitted to travel around the country and sell one's goods. An oral tradition says that it was the Danish wigmakers who were afraid for their trade, and managed to arrange for it to be forbidden for hairdressing salons to make and sell hair products in Denmark. This rule applied until 1856, when the regulation was tightened, but this time a special passage was included stating that "Ladies from the Province of Dalarna in Sweden" were exempt from the ban. 

Some of the professional Danish hair workers traveled around themselves. In both May and July 1841, one could read in the Helsingør Avis that "Haarfletter Andersen" stayed at the Hotel du Nord for a few days, receiving customers there. 

The last professional hair worker in Denmark, ladies' hairdresser Kirsten Marie Badstue, died in 1960.

The Bangsbo Museum at Frederikshavn, which is part of the North Jutland Coastal Museum, has a large collection of hair works. 

United States

In 1850, the leading women's magazine Godey's Magazine reported that hairdressing had recently come to the United States from Germany, but the art of hairdressing came to the "New World " with immigrants from several European countries. It is known that some Swedish hairdressing women, among others, emigrated to the United States and made and sold their goods there. In some cases, their husbands were also hairdressing workers. 

In the United States, there was no nobility or royalty who pioneered the use of human hair jewelry. Here, it was the white middle class who in the 18th century could afford to pay a jeweler or a skilled craftsman to make such jewelry. In the early days, hair jewelry was intended to be an expression of the owner's deep, sincere feelings. Those who owned such works placed great importance on this ideal. Feelings were not to be openly demonstrated, but were to be revealed through the person's taste in art, literature, and possessions, such as miniature portraits with a background of the subject's hair. 

As in Europe, hairwork was available as elaborate jewelry and wall decorations. The items could be made by professionals or by amateurs and were most popular from around 1830 to the 1880s. One could order jewelry made by a jeweler, or send hair to a mail-order company and have it returned finished as a bracelet or watch chain. Instructions and recipes for hairwork also appeared in women's magazines and separate booklets. 

In 1844, the Ladies National Magazine wrote that sentimental bracelets, made of hair, were now considered indispensable. 

The hair products of commercial companies were often represented at technical, mechanical and industrial exhibitions. This was a result of the industry's starting point being a craft. At the World's Fair " Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations " in New York's Crystal Palace in 1853, several hair products were displayed, mainly jewelry, but also a complete tea service made of hair. 

After World War I

The researchers cite several possible reasons why jewelry and hair decorations went out of fashion in the early 20th century, and eventually almost disappeared completely.

Photography took over as a memory of a dear friend. Post-mortem portraits of the deceased were also taken, as a memento for posterity. In the early days after photography became available to the public, hair ornaments and photographs lived side by side. Many believed that the hair ornament expressed emotions better than the frozen expression in the photograph. 

Hair styles changed. After World War I, short hairstyles became more common for women, so the raw material for hair work, long women's hair, became difficult to obtain. Romantic hair ornaments and wall decorations also went out of fashion as the overloaded Victorian interiors and clothing styles were replaced by a simpler style. The heavy, dark hair decorations seemed out of place with the lighter materials and brighter colors.

Theories about germs became known around 1870, and increased attention to cleanliness in the 20th century made many people find it unappetizing to work with hair, and indelicate to adorn themselves with hair products. Cut hair should be disposed of, not fashioned into jewelry. As early as 1924, hair jewelry was written about as something from a bygone era: "The idea of having the braids of a deceased relative dangling decoratively from one's ear had a stronger appeal within the sentimental ideas of the last century than within the modern concept of cleanliness." 

Hair works represented the stories of individuals and were not perceived as historically important or interesting. Nor did they have a natural place in the 20th century. The 19th century nostalgia, sentimentality, and personal connections to the works were gone. They became difficult to understand for those who had not been part of the culture in which they were created, and were often perceived as sinister and morbid. This aspect has been used in crime fiction since the 1960s. 

According to Sheumaker, hair work ceased to exist as a commercial commodity after jewelers and other companies stopped advertising hair jewelry in 1925, but the craft was practiced by many people even after that time. Andersen also writes that hair work stagnated around 1923, but it is known, among other things, that hairdresser Marie Badstue in Denmark made hair jewelry for several decades after this. 

Towards the end of the 1950s, interest in hairwork increased somewhat, and human hair jewelry has become a sought-after antique and a cultural historical phenomenon that is studied. Scholarly articles are published on hairwork, museums, websites and associations exist,  and reference books are published. Several art history museums have large collections of hairwork from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Though hairwork had gone out of fashion more than a half century earlier around Europe, the people of Våmhus (where much hairwork was created) began to realize what a treasure the knowledge of the trade was. The local historical society introduced classes in hair work and new generations of women learned the art. In Våmhus, hair art has been done continuously for almost 200 years.

In 1994, the Hairworkers Society was founded by the most active hair workers. Together they have done many shows, exhibits and projects. Similarly, the Victorian Hairwork Society also offers a space for members to share their art, identify historical pieces, and request work to be crafted online.

There are still (as of 2016) hairdressing workshops in Våmhus, where hairwork is demonstrated for tourists during the summer months, and the handicraft association holds courses so that new generations can learn the craft. 

There are also artisans who specialize in hair jewelry that is not necessarily based on traditional shapes and patterns. One of these is the Swedish Anna Sparr. 

Object types, materials and techniques

Item types

Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine wrote in 1850 that an inventive hair dresser could find many small objects to make from, or adorn with, hair. They suggested, among other things: bracelets, brooches, earrings, rings, chains, necklaces, shawl pins, tie pins, purses, bags, bookmarks, pencil cases, perfume bottles, walking sticks, and riding whips. In addition, both two- and three-dimensional hair decorations were made.

Some of the most popular items:

Memento mori jewelry and pictures. These are known from both the 18th and 19th centuries. The motif often expressed grief over the loss of a dear friend, while at the same time being a reminder of the mortality of the survivors. The pictures were wall decorations in glass and frames. The jewelry was often brooches. This jewelry could also contain text, which gave hope of reunion in the afterlife: "Not lost, but gone before". 

Wall decorations of twisted and braided hair around a metal wire skeleton. Popular motifs were flower bouquets or wreaths. The motif was attached to a backing, for example of thick cardboard, set in glass and a frame, and hung in plain view in the home. These hair wreaths usually contained hair from all family members and became a tangible expression of a happy home. Such decorations, in glass and a frame, were also used to adorn graves. 

Jewelry in the "lace technique" of your own hair, or hair from a dear friend, homemade or ordered from a company. Eventually, the jewelry could also be machine-made.

Watch chains, often love gifts from a woman to a man. The hair was usually the woman's own. The clasp itself was often made of gold or a gilded material, and could be purchased ready-made.

Three-dimensional decorations in the form of floral arrangements, protected under glass bell jars. Like the wall paintings with bouquets and wreaths, these decorations were built up over metal wire skeletons. 

The hairdressers also made other products, such as doll wigs and braids.

Materials

Hair has properties that make it resistant to decomposition, and it can potentially be preserved for thousands of years, unless it is attacked by fur moths. 

Before the time of synthetic fibers, wigs were only made from the hair of living people, because the hair of a deceased person becomes dull, brittle and lifeless. It was also supposed to be women's hair. Women cut off parts of their hair, often the nape of the neck, so that it was not so visible, and sold it to buyers. These also bought the detangled hair that the women had collected from their hairbrushes and put in boxes for sale to the traveling buyers.

In Brittany, annual hair markets were held, where young girls sold most of their long hair. The traditional women's costume included a tight-fitting hat, so it was not a problem to cut off the hair that was hidden by the headdress anyway. 

It was claimed to be a strange fact that men's hair was completely useless, even as mattress stuffing. Hair products, however, could be made from hair from both sexes. There are examples of bracelets and hair pictures made from men's hair, and jewelry and decorations were also made from hair from the deceased: "People brought the hair of their loved ones – living or dead – and had it processed." 

The hair had to be treated, and all lice removed, before it could become jewelry material. The shaved hair had to be combed until it became smooth. The hair was gathered into bundles and washed in soapy water, often with vinegar added to give it extra shine. Eventually, gasoline was also used to remove all grease. During the washing, the hair's color could be changed, if the customer so desired, using various chemicals. After the jewelry was finished, it had to be boiled, and then dried in a hot oven. After this treatment, the durability was almost unlimited. 

Hair was imported in large quantities to both England and the United States in the 19th century, including from Asia. Much of this was used for hair extensions and wigs. It is not documented how much was used for hair work. 

In Sweden, there were strict restrictions on the procurement of raw materials for hair work. It was the wigmakers' guild that had the exclusive right to purchase hair until well into the 19th century. This may be one of the reasons why the dalkullorna from the beginning stuck to horsehair rings, and traveled abroad to buy hair and practice their profession. 

When the hair fashion was at its peak, and there was no need for sentimental feelings attached to the jewelry, a few hair workers and companies specialized in horsehair jewelry. 

Technique

The technique used to make wall decorations and memento mori jewelry in the 18th century is called palette work, and consisted of a motif being drawn on a plate before hair and possibly other elements were shaped, placed and glued to form the motif. In this jewelry, parts of the motif could be "painted" with hair. When hair was powdered and mixed with, for example, gum arabic, it could be used to bring out details or surfaces in the image. Finally, the whole was covered in crystal or glass. The wall decorations were then framed, while the jewelry images were set in a brooch, ring or medallion of gold, often adorned with pearls or precious stones. 

In the 19th century, palette work was no longer the most widely used, but when 50 designers were employed at hair studios in France in 1847, it is likely that they were commissioned to draw palette work, possibly in addition to designing new jewelry. 

Although the palette work lived on, the most popular was now jewelry in which the hair itself was processed and transformed into bracelets, earrings, and the like, through braiding and twisting. The technique that now became common has much in common with lace and braiding.  While the material in palette work could be hair of varying lengths and qualities, the lace jewelry was made from long women's hair. 

The most important tools in the work with these "lace" jewelry, described in several Swedish sources, were the trensestativitet (Swedish:tränsställning), the stand for twisting and braiding narrow bands of hair, and the "kedeställning" (chain stand), where the lacemaking took place. The trensestativitet resembles a miniature rope course, while the kedeställning consists of a round, turned wooden disc with a diameter of about 20 cm, with a hole in the middle. The disc rests on three legs, which can be removable, so the equipment took up little space in the pack when the hårkullorna traveled around for work. The chain stand is in principle very similar to that used in Japanese kumihimo, the art of braiding threads, usually of silk.

Livelihood and leisure activities

Many museums mainly display hairwork made by professionals, but the practitioners of this craft were a diverse group. Hairwork required little equipment and space, and the material often came from the customer themselves, so with good training, for example through courses and recipes in books and women's magazines, it was also possible for amateurs to make both palette and lacework. Love gifts, such as braided watch chains, were mainly made by amateurs, while professionals made the most intricate openwork, lace-work jewelry.

There were hair workers who took on assignments where they lived, and others who traveled around offering their services and work, as the hårkullorna in Sweden did. They traveled mainly in the autumn, winter and spring months, when there was little work on the farm. Some of them remained away for several years, and must be counted among the professionals.

After hair jewelry became a major fashion in the mid-19th century, the jewelry became a commercial commodity; mail-order companies and other businesses were established that specialized in making jewelry from donated hair, and others that offered jewelry clasps and other metal accessories.

Goldsmiths, wigmakers and hairdressers had hair jewelry as a supplementary source of income.

Middle- and upper-class women made hairwork as a pastime, both because it was a suitable activity, along the lines of embroidery, fileting, and crocheting, and to ensure that the right hair ended up in the piece of jewelry. Most of the wall decorations of hair flowers were made by amateurs, mostly women. The amateur's work was considered extra valuable, because it was made not only with the hand, but also with the heart. 

Long term preservation

In Victorian and older pieces the gum used to hold the hair and other decorations in place has often decayed over time resulting of movement of hair within the pieces.

Sourced from Wikipedia