At Green Salon Collective, we’ve been leading the way in research and development around how waste hair from salons can be recycled, repurposed, and reimagined. To date, we’ve explored over 15 different ways of giving hair a second life, from cleaning up oil spills to growing new plants! One area that never fails to inspire us is how artists are using hair in their creative practice.
Here are five incredible examples where human hair has been transformed into art and design:
1. Clothing
Some visionary designers like Jenni Dutton and Alix Bizet have been using waste salon hair to create new garments and textiles. From endless hours gluing to felting hair into mats and sewing together, not only does this challenge our perceptions of beauty and waste, it also creates textiles with a unique look and texture, turning what might have ended up in landfill into something fashionable and thought-provoking.
2. Hairy Sculpture
Hair isn’t just for small, delicate works - it can go big. Pareid Architects created a towering three-metre sculpture using felted salon recycled hair, showing hair's strength and natural movement to form sweeping shapes. The result? A striking example of how much waste can be generated in the hairdressing industry, and all that lost potential.
3. Jewellery with Living Plants
In an innovative exploration, Beth WIlliams used our human hair x waste wool twine with tiny living plants to make a necklace! The hair acted as both a design element and a growing medium, showing how hair’s nitrogen-rich nature can support plants!
4. Crocheted Coasters from Hair x Wool Twine
Using out hair x wool twine from Natural Fibre Co, and artist crocheted a set of coasters that were both functional and beautiful for the salon environment! The mix of fibres added strength, while the natural colours of the hair gave each coaster a distinct character. It’s a perfect example of how hair can integrate with other materials to create everyday items.
5. Mycelium
Hair can even be part of building materials. We have experimented with binding hair into particleboard and blocks of mycelium, creating a surprisingly strong and durable material. Mycelium could be grown around any structure to create a sculpture of hair and mushrooms...maybe we'll try this next!
At Green Salon Collective, we believe hair is too valuable to waste. Beyond the 15+ recycling methods we’ve already developed (including composting, oil spill clean-up, and garden mats) we’re constantly inspired by the creativity of artists who see hair as more than just a by-product. These projects challenge us to rethink waste and imagine a more circular future.
If you’re an artist, designer, or maker who’s interested in working with recycled hair, we’d love to hear from you. Together, we can keep pushing the boundaries of what this remarkable material can do!