I've read a few articles and seen a few items that were made with human hair as a rememberance of the loss of a close person.  Common items would be hair braided rings or lockets with a small hair curl.  I recently came across a picture of a wreath made of human hair.  You cannot believe the detail to this wreath (and the amount of hair it must have taken to make it).  Check this out.  Mourning Wreath

That's very interesting-and very touching!What a unique way to keep something from a beloved person,I have never seen something like this wreath before.
I only remember my grandmother keeping a locket with a lock of hair of one of her children who died very young.

Here is a link to more examples of hair art.  I can't imagine how much time must go into these!

more hair art

Here's a site that will make jewerly with your own hair!
Hairlooms

That is very beautuful and very interesting, but also kinda creepy I dont know why but it just is.  :-/

Hi, I am Katie Mello I run Hairlooms.  I was happy to see that you found my site and I would love to answer any questions that you might have about "hairwork", or art and jewelry made from human hair.

I think that it  is a really wonderful art, though it does have a creepyness about it.  It was very popular in the 1800's, but dropped out of fashion around the turn of the century with the advent of photography.  People used to exchange a lock of hair with a loved one, or keep a lock of hair from one who died.

Women wove their long hair into fantastic braides, or fashioned them into flowers to create elaborate wreaths.  This is nearly a lost art and I would love to see it become popular agian.  I currently offer jewelry from short hair, or pet hair, but I would love to offer a line of jewelry for very long hair.  I also want to write a book explaining how to create the elaborate weaves so that women can make their own pieces.

Thanks, Katie

Katie;
Making some of those items must take forever!  Do you use anything with the hair to help preserve it or keep it from getting frizzy looking?

Hi All,

I have a victorian mourning ring that has the hair inside it.  I got it as an anniversary present years ago.  It is a gold band with a black strip with the words "In memory of" on the outside.  We had it opened and low and behold there was a lock of braided black hair inside!  :D  The hair was in very good shape and in such tiny braids!  The inside band is marked with the initials of the deceased.  We also have my late father-in-law's hair :'( (a nice bright red) which we someday want to place into a locket for my mother-in-law.  These types of memorials are so beautiful and very hard to find in my area!  

Your mourning ring sounds facinating and what a surprise to find the hair still in it!

Giving your MIL a locket with her husband's hair would be such a wonderful memory for her.  Good luck finding the right locket for her.

Part of what's so neat about this is that the hair just lasts, as anyone who saved a childhood lock knows.  I mean, you go back *ahem* amount of years and there it is just as soft and lively as the stuff on your head, sometimes even better...g

wrote on Jul 21^st, 2004 at 11:26pm:

That is very beautuful and very interesting, but also kinda creepy I dont know why but it just is.  :-/

Yeah, I have to argee with candylipsgurl: this topic sounds kinds of ...gross. This person is no longer here, but the hair is.  :-/ Sorry if this sounds disrespectful. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I just think I would be a little put out and disturbed by someone else's hair as jewely (whether they're alive or otherwise) My option.
Meg

wrote on Jul 8^th, 2005 at 2:44pm:

Yeah, I have to argee with candylipsgurl: this topic sounds kinds of ...gross. This person is no longer here, but the hair is.  :-/ Sorry if this sounds disrespectful. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I just think I would be a little put out and disturbed by someone else's hair as jewely (whether they're alive or otherwise) My option. Meg

Now Now *patting on back and burping Meg* - as my husband the chemical engineer for sewage treatments has said "one wo/man's **** is another's bread and butter"

Some find it negative some find it positive ... no matter, if you are in the former you could take up making sweaters from Samoyed hair  ;D , they are still alive as opposed to, you know, the whole leather and fur thing *snork*.

Seriously, there is no accounting for how people perceive things and no explanation is required.  Especially when it comes to topics around death - some embrace it some, well, don't.

It's OK, g

edited to say I'm off to admire Katie's Hairlooms  :-*

Keeping a loved one's hair as a momento dates back centuries - before pictures were used.  Some cultures promote the hair keepsake more than others.  

If this whole idea creeps you out, then just skip the link and this topic.  Not everything appeals to everyone, and that's ok.

WOW!  I didn't know they made all sort of jewelry from hair!  :o

Though I do remember the day my mom and I went to Jane Austen's home and took a tour... and there was a locket of her pretty blonde (the hairs looked like blonde, but I can't recall what her real color ((if it was blonde)) was) hair tied in blue satin ribbon.

And there's something sweet about cutting a bit of hair to give to your beloved that I really like.  ;)

Although.. I'm not sure if I would wear hair jewelry myself, but it's still a very interesting and (almost lost) art.

I was doing a search for something else, but came across this page which is somewhat related to this topic.  This is on Victorian Hair:
http://www.hairarchives.com/private/victorian1new.htm

I thought it was interesting how they saved hair in a ceramic bowl (right now mine ends up in the vaccuum!  How wasteful.)  And the locket with the Prince of Wales form is really pretty!  I wouldn't mind having a momento like that.

Cynde

I do think this idea is very neat and the wreath is pretty but the fact that it's human hair kind of irks me.  It's funny how when I see a fur coat or something I don't think anything of it, but there's something about the hair being human.

Wow, this is totally fascinating!!  How quickly times change.  In just a little over 100 years we have learned so much about hygiene and disease that giving hair seems gross but at the time a person was giving the greatest gift they had--a piece of themselves.  

I wear two hair bracelets every day.  I had them made from the tail-hair of my two horses here:

http://www.twistedtails.com/

I've also got a lock of my husband's hair tucked away in my jewelry box.  Maybe one day I'll send it off to Hairlooms.  When I saw her little cat necklaces, I got sad, because I never did save any of my departed kitties' fur.  I would've sent it off to her in a heartbeat!

I guess I'm just gross.   ;)