Weird Uses For Human Hair

How many times have you keenly observed locks of hair tumbling down to the ground, following the snip of scissors on your tresses? Not many of us bother to think of where our hair may end up, as we brush off the locks that cling to us and step out of the salon with a brand new haircut.

For those of you who thought that the only use human hair can be put to is a wig, here are some more interesting revelations on the uses that human hair can be employed for.

Make clothes: Two women, Ioana Cioanca from Romania and Xiang Renxian from China created clothes using their own locks. The fashion industry also uses hair in coats to thicken them up by substituting it for fur and thus reducing the cost. So, if you are a knitting enthusiast, how about personalizing the next cardigan or pair of gloves with those extra strands from your own head?

Create soy sauce: A company in China apparently used the protein in human hair to prepare soy sauce after treating it. The next time you find hair in the dish you splashed soy sauce into, remember, it needn’t be your own!

Material to build nests: Hair clippings are sought by birds to add to the materials that they use to create their nests. If you don’t know what to do with the strands of hair that fall out, how about donating them to your animal friends?

In jewelry: Brooches and pendants were created to preserve the locks of a loved one’s hair during the Victorian era. These keepsakes were popular among soldiers who marched off to wars and sailors who set sail.

Add flavor to food: Hair provides an amino acid called L-cysteine which is used as a flavor enhancer in pizza doughs. Human hair was the primary source of this product till a couple of years ago. Fortunately, this is no longer practiced and you can dive into hair-free pizzas without a qualm.

Make ropes: Hair is very strong. Although a strand of hair may break if you strain it, a bunch of hair cannot be easily broken. Native Americans used to create strong ropes out of twisted hair fibers till they later switched to using horse hair.

The next time you don’t want your precious strands of hair to go down the trash and would prefer recycling them to serve a purpose, you know what your options are!