As fashion looks to become more sustainable, we’ve seen a whole assortment of alternative materials hit the market, from mushroom leather to seaweed yarns and everything in between. One potential fabric of the future that may surprise you? Human hair. Royal College of Art student Javiera Decap became interested in using human hair in their work, after noticing its similarities with the wool from long-haired sheep in their native Norway.
“Once it’s cut on the floor in a hair salon, it’s just so neglected; many people also find it very uncanny and repulsive. So I was like, how can we inject new value into this material?” On discovering how polluting the textiles industry is, Kollar saw the potential of human hair as a more sustainable material of the future – particularly due to its structural similarities with wool.