Hairy affair Hair Matters by Savine Schoorl
Sustainable Innovations
Hair creates identity – we dye it, style it, create new looks and expressions, and associate ourselves with cultural or social groups. It loses meaning and becomes rubbish to be discarded. In her hair project, Savine School gives hair a second life.
“Haar Haar focuses on the short switch from appreciating hair to feeling disgusted by it, even when it is the same material. It seeks to give a second life to the material we treasured when it was on our head.“
Every month, the textile designer and material researcher collects kilos of hair from various hair salons and extension studios and sorts them by colour and length. In the next step, she uses a machine to spin the hair together with wool into a uniform, flexible yarn. This yarn highlights the properties of both materials: the admixed wool offers the possibility to work with other tones beyond the hair colours, while the reflection of light on the hair provides a beautiful shimmer.
The designer uses the yarn to produce stylish accessories, such as crocheted hats – which at first glance have nothing to do with what ends up on the floor during a visit to the hairdresser. In this way, Savine Schoorl makes it clear that hair is a valuable resource and gives people the opportunity to discover the value of supposed waste in its second life cycle.