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More websurfing: hair
Sep. 30th, 2008 03:26 pmIt's almost October! Hello, fall!
As I was driving home from school today, I noticed a shed strand of my hair sticking to the fabric of the passenger seat, and it got me to thinking about practical purposes for human hair. Does the stuff have any value as a textile fiber?
And so to Google, that so-much-more-convenient successor to the encyclopedia. It doesn't look like fabric made of human hair is much of a tradeable commodity now, although it can be found blended with other fibers. This page claims that Pima Indians once made cord and rope from hair.
I vaguely remembered one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books mentioning a hair receiver for storing hair. To what purpose was the stored hair put, if not spun for yarn, and what was a hair receiver, anyway? Apparently, women used to save their shed hair to make "hair switches" or "hair ratts," to supplement the hair that was still attached and fill out fancy, puffy hair styles. Wigs and extensions still seem to be the primary use for human hair today.
And a hair receiver is a jar for storing what one picks out of one's brush or comb. They're rather decorative; I did a quick search for them on eBay, which is how I noticed that some were made by Noritake, the china company. I suppose it makes sense for them to have produced porcelain products for the vanity, when those were in demand.
I checked out Noritake's site and discovered two interesting things: first, they make a lot of other things besides tableware. Apparently, like YKK, the zipper manufacturer on which I did a report over the summer, they diversified vertically in the course of developing their own means of manufacturing. Second, this pattern of dishes printed with optical illusions. Pretty neat, isn't it?
Aaand that's probably enough web browsing for today. I have studying to do.
As I was driving home from school today, I noticed a shed strand of my hair sticking to the fabric of the passenger seat, and it got me to thinking about practical purposes for human hair. Does the stuff have any value as a textile fiber?
And so to Google, that so-much-more-convenient successor to the encyclopedia. It doesn't look like fabric made of human hair is much of a tradeable commodity now, although it can be found blended with other fibers. This page claims that Pima Indians once made cord and rope from hair.
I vaguely remembered one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books mentioning a hair receiver for storing hair. To what purpose was the stored hair put, if not spun for yarn, and what was a hair receiver, anyway? Apparently, women used to save their shed hair to make "hair switches" or "hair ratts," to supplement the hair that was still attached and fill out fancy, puffy hair styles. Wigs and extensions still seem to be the primary use for human hair today.
And a hair receiver is a jar for storing what one picks out of one's brush or comb. They're rather decorative; I did a quick search for them on eBay, which is how I noticed that some were made by Noritake, the china company. I suppose it makes sense for them to have produced porcelain products for the vanity, when those were in demand.
I checked out Noritake's site and discovered two interesting things: first, they make a lot of other things besides tableware. Apparently, like YKK, the zipper manufacturer on which I did a report over the summer, they diversified vertically in the course of developing their own means of manufacturing. Second, this pattern of dishes printed with optical illusions. Pretty neat, isn't it?
Aaand that's probably enough web browsing for today. I have studying to do.
