Hair today — can be a memento for tomorrow
Historical Society of Montgomery County features collection of ‘Hair Art’
Hairstylists. Barbers. Who knew we’d miss them so much when COVID-19 shuttered their doors – or be so relieved to hear of their imminent re-opening…especially those of us who’ve had to make do with rogue stylings by amateur stand-ins. Or, just as nerve-wracking, become one of those amateur stand-ins.
Take Lafayette Hill native Carol Wolfinger. Given her long career in business, shearing errant locks isn’t exactly in Wolfinger’s wheelhouse. But that hasn’t stopped her from doing an occasional cut for a handful of current Chester County neighbors, although, she jokes, her impromptu clients sign a “waiver” that releases her from liability for scissoring gone wrong.
Conversely, professional cuts and coloring by a trained professional can be works of art. At the height of the ongoing pandemic, African hairdressers in Nairobi even created a jagged do dubbed “the coronavirus,” designed to mimic COVID-19’s appearance under a microscope.
During the 19th century, the Victorians used the hair of deceased relatives and close friends to fashion “mourning jewelry,” worn while they grieved. Others created decorative art and wreaths
with loved ones’ locks. Cut hair doesn’t decompose or lose its color, so these pieces became treasured mementos.
Several examples of such art are on public view at the Historical Society of Montgomery County – part of HSMC’s special “Hair Art” collection.
“Mourning jewelry became popular when Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, died,” explains HSMC curator Karen Ploch. “It was particularly popular among middle to upper class women…usually when a spouse or a child had passed away.
“People used hair for needle work projects, too. But
jewelry was more common … especially mourning jewelry, which people would make by braiding a few locks of hair and wearing during the mourning period as a way of keeping the deceased person with them as they worked through their grief. That pretty much ended around the time of World War I.”
Some historians also note that strands of hair served as valued keepsakes before portable cameras came into common use, although some parents still snip and save bits of baby’s hair before its first haircut.
Far more famous…the framed display of hair from the heads of the first 14 American Presidents at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. Hair from Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
is also exhibited at Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri. Namesake and founder Leila Cohoon, a retired cosmetology teacher, began collecting hair in the mid-1950s, and her museum claims 2,000-plus pieces of tress-embellished jewelry and wreaths. The museum is also headquarters for the Victorian Hairwork Society and the venue for Victorian Hairworkers International’s annual convention (postponed from this Aug. 15-17 to Aug. 14-16, 2021, because of COVID-19 concerns).
Farther afield, the Hair Museum of Avanos in Turkey reportedly holds some 16,000 locks of hair from women visitors, and the collection has rated inclusion in the Guinness World Book of Records.
At press time, the pandemic was still affecting visiting options at most museums, but Ploch says HSMC is looking forward to “welcoming back the public as soon as possible” and recommends area residents check its website (www. hsmcpa.org) for updates.
Starting June 30, HSMC’s Norristown headquarters at 1654 DeKalb St. “will be open to researchers by appointment only.”
“In order to provide services to our patrons, while continuing to prevent the spread of coronavirus in our community, we will be allowing researchers to access our collections with certain limitations,” HSMC spokesmen add. “Researchers are required to make appointments for a two-hour research session. Please call us at 610-292-0297 to make an appointment or to submit a research request.”