Hair Art
Workshop developed by Sandra Klowak and Dr. Vanessa Warne
Online tutorial created by Ruth Ormiston
Hairwork from February 2021 workshop participants
Although the practice might seem unusual or even macabre today, many Victorians wore and decorated their homes with art made of human hair. Hair art was not only a fashionable trend; it also served as an affectionate, intimate, and bodily reminder of a loved one (living or dead). Newspapers advertised services for professional hairworkers and Victorians could even mail in their desired hair samples for custom-made pieces. At the same time, hairwork became a popular craft for women to undertake at home, with many instructional guides published to support this domestic practice.
This tutorial will introduce you to the gimp work (or wire work) technique of hairwork. The materials listed below are enough to create a flower piece, but feel free to experiment with different shapes and forms!
Want to learn more about this craft? Click here for a list of scholarly readings, blogs and websites, instructional videos, extant examples, and 19th-century tutorials. Click here to read a maker’s reflection by Indiana Humniski.
Hair art in the Victorian era
Illustrated instructions from Alexanna Speight’s The Lock of Hair (1871)
Hairwork bracelet, c. 1850s. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
November 1875 advertisement in The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine assuring readers that “the same hair sent shall be used.”
Learn about the hairwork collection at Seven Oaks House Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Treaty One Territory. Courtesy of Eric Napier Strong
You will need
Copper wire (any colour; 26 gauge; often sold as a beading/jewelry making supply)
Human hair, horse hair, synthetic hair or yarn
A kitchen skewer, knitting needle, small dowel or chopstick (different sizes will give you different sized hair loops; start with whatever you have on hand)
Scissors
Clear nail varnish or glue
A hardware clamp
Optional Items:
Buttons, beads or similar embellishments
Needle and thread
For Instructors: Visit our Crafting in the Classroom page for information on embodied learning, or click here for further resources about this craft.
Preparing your materials
Sections of hair:
Have nail varnish or glue ready for use before you begin cutting the hair. Use the disposable lid of a bottle or a similarly small receptacle to hold the small amount of nail varnish or glue that you will use to secure hair sections.
If you are new to hairwork, you will benefit from working with hair in lengths of 8 inches or longer. As human or horse hair are precious materials, you may want to experiment with synthetic hair (or yarn) before using real hair.
Create a section of hair to work with by pinching a small section of hair (pinch the hair that would be closest to the head, not the uneven ends). Use scissors to cut the hair, keeping the hair pinched with your other hand.
Dip the cut end of the section of hair into the nail varnish or glue; dip about 1.5 cm of hair. Your goal is to bond the individual hairs together to anchor them for use. You may want to pinch the varnished or glued section with your fingers to help the section bond and stay together.
Let the glue or varnish on individual hair sections dry. Consider hanging the hair sections so that wet ends don’t bond to a surface as they dry.
Please note: If you are using a heavy yarn instead of hair, you will not need to secure the ends and can skip the dipping.
Dipping the cut end of the hair into varnish
The varnish will bond the individual hairs together
You will want to varnish approx. 1.5 cm of hair
Pieces of wire:
Cut your wire into lengths of approximately 30 cm (1 ft) and fold the wire in half at the midpoint, twisting that midpoint to make a small loop. Start with 4 or 5 lengths of wire.
Wire pieces twisted at midpoint with loop
You are now ready to follow the steps below and start wiring your sections of hair!
Setting up your workspace
Take your dowel and a section of wire.
Position your wire along the dowel with the loop at the top. Use your clamp to attach the dowel and wire to your work surface. You want the place where the two wires connect to remain visible below the clamp (it will look like an upside down “Y”) — this set-up will allow you to get as close to the loop as possible with your hair.
Lay one wire down on either side of the dowel and give each one a gentle tug to make sure they are secured to your work surface.
Set-up from side
Set-up from above
The method demonstrated here uses a 2-inch hardware clamp, although the clamp size you use can vary depending on your work surface. You may want to insert some small pieces of folded fabric or paper towel between your clamp and your work surface to improve the stability of your set up.
Please note: Some hairworkers do not use a clamp but instead hold their dowel in one hand while manipulating the hair and wire with the other. You can view this method here.
Casting on
Take one section of hair, starting with the varnished end.
Bring the hair under the dowel in a “U” shape while making sure that it stays inside the wire. You should leave about 2 cm of hair on the side with the varnished end — this can be trimmed or tucked in later.
Pinch the hair together above the dowel with your non-dominant hand.
With your dominant hand, cross one wire over the dowel from left to right and the other from right to left, forming an “X” shape right against the loop of hair to secure it in place.
REMEMBER: Wires never go around the dowel – they just criss-cross along the top, bringing the material closer to you. Right now, the wires should be closest to you, hanging on either side of the dowel.
Wrapping and wiring
Continue the same movements from the previous step: one hand wraps the hair around the dowel back to its starting position, then the other crosses the wires to secure the hair in place.
The wire hand can hold the wires taut while the other hand is wrapping hair.
TIP: Always wrap the hair in the same direction (either clockwise or counter-clockwise) and always cross your wires in the same order.
Casting off
Take one of the wires and wrap it around the hair a few times to pinch it together.
Make sure that you are only wrapping the wire around the hair itself and not the dowel.
Removing your wired hair from the dowel
Remove your clamp from your workspace.
With one hand gently wrapped around the piece of wired hair and the other holding onto the dowel, carefully slide the hair off of the dowel.
You should now have a section of wired hair! You may want to pinch the wire at both ends where it connects to the hair to make sure it is secure; you could also apply glue to the ends to make sure your hair doesn’t start to slip out of the wire.
Experiment with shaping these wired sections into petals or leaves or small rosettes. You can make shapes with the hair loops on the outside or you can create a sharper edge by placing the wire outward.
Flower with wires on outside
Flower with wires on inside
A couple of Sandra’s creations to inspire you:
Women of the Fort
Roses with Thorns (made with hair and discarded cat claw sheaths)
Tips for making flowers
To create petals: Shape your piece of wired hair into a petal. Twist the two ends together five times and use the extra wire at end to wrap around and secure them.
To make a rosette: Twist your piece of wired hair into a spiral. Secure the ends with a drop of glue to stop the hair from coming off of the wire. You can also join the two ends on the back of the rosette using any excess wire and the remaining wire off.
Questions and troubleshooting
A piece created by Vanessa using her daughter’s hair and decorative beads
How can I incorporate buttons or beads into my design?
You can use buttons and/or beads as features of your hairwork design (for example, as ornaments or as the centre of your flowers) or as “decorative distractions” to cover pieces of your work. You can secure your button/bead to your piece using thread.
What do I do with the end of my wires?
You can hide the end of your wires in your design – wrap it around the end of your petal/rosette to secure it into place, or use it to secure two pieces of your design together.
What do I do with loose hairs?
You can use scissors to trim loose hairs off your finished project.
What happened to hair art? Why did it decline in popularity?
One theory involves the change in hairstyle trends in the early twentieth century. As short hair became fashionable (particularly among women – think flapper hairstyle) people just didn’t have long enough hair to save and use for hairwork.
To read Indiana Humniski’s first-time maker’s reflection on hair art and to see her final results, click here.
Please send us your own work-in-progress and/or finished creations! Connect with us on Instagram @crafty_victorians.
Sandra Klowak
Sandra Klowak is an artist in Winnipeg (Treaty 1), Canada who weaves and sculpts with human hair, based on the historic craft of Victorian hairwork. Sandra is fascinated by artefacts made from organic matter, like hair, that have survived as tangible chunks of history, connecting us to the past lives of real people.
She is a strong supporter of historic museums and currently serves as Vice Chair on the board of Seven Oaks House Museum. Sandra, her husband, and daughter enjoy exploring rural Manitoba, camping and taking in the unique history displayed at local museums and historic houses.
To learn more about Sandra’s work, visit corporealcurios.com and @corporealcurios on Instagram and Facebook.
Dr. Vanessa Warne
Vanessa Warne, a member of the Crafting Communities team, has been experimenting with hairwork since 2018. A student of Sandra Klowak, Vanessa hopes to expand her crafting practice to include tablework, with the goal of weaving a watch guard from hair. She enjoys teaching hairwork to her Victorian literature students at the University of Manitoba and would be pleased to talk with university and high-school instructors about introducing hairwork to their classrooms.