(If you just want to have a tiny lock of hair in your jewelry and don’t care about making a braided coil, or are making a ring, short hair will work fine.) Basically, you need the longest possible hair you can get without making your friend’s head look like it’s conspicuously missing hair. That much hair is a little bit longer than shoulder length. If you want to make a spiraled braid-coil, like the eye necklace I made above, you’ll need at least 12 inches of hair that’s all the same length. Any kind of hair, in any texture, will work. One or more locks of your own or your friend’s hair.Out of your best friend’s hair and feel all witchy-cool? Why braid bracelets out of embroidery thread when you can make this: A way to show off how close you are without the potential sharing of blood-borne pathogens inherent in becoming “blood sisters,” you know what I’m saying? YES.Īnyway! Since our theme for this month is FOREVER, I thought it would be fun to do a less-morbid DIY version of hair jewelry using your and your friends’ hair! I mean, sure, there are friendship bracelets and necklaces, but if this isn’t an intimate and conversation-starting way to declare your FOREVER LOVE for one another, I don’t know what is. Case in point: My first girlfriend had hair that fell all the way to her butt, and I need to tell you that I was so in love with her, so obsessed with her, that I was actually jealous of her hair, because it had been with her longer than I had. And when it’s preserved correctly, hair lasts almost forever! Hair is so personal, a piece of us. Hair goes everywhere with us, and think about all the songs, poems, and stories that involve hair, not to mention the amount of time we devote to maintaining it. Hair has long been attributed mythical and magical powers-in the Bible, Samson’s hair holds his power, and it’s long been thought in folklore that spells can be cast over a person if you possess a lock of their hair. I went home and immediately started googling “Victorian mourning jewelry,” and discovered that while hair jewelry and hair work became something of a craze in Victorian times, the idea of wearable keepsakes out of hair has actually been around for centuries. The idea of making jewelry out of the hair of someone you loved was so CREEPY and BEAUTIFUL and semi-morbid. The brooch cost $375, so I couldn’t buy it, but my interest was piqued. The past wasn’t in black-and-white anymore-it was as bright as new straw. I suddenly felt how amazing it was to be holding it, this entirely unchanged piece of a person who was no longer alive. The little braid was as shiny and bright as it must have been the day it was snipped from someone’s head over 200 years ago. “This one’s from the early 1800s,” the seller said, and handed it to me. Image via the Victorian Hairwork Society (for real). She reached into the case and pulled out a brooch with a braid of bright blonde hair pressed under glass. “Oh,” I said, simultaneously grossed out and fascinated. This is Victorian mourning jewelry-people took locks of their loved one’s hair and had it made into these perfect works of art, so they could keep and wear a part of them forever.” I asked the woman standing behind the counter about the weird thread-jewelry. Who would pay $250 for a set of teardrop earrings made out thread? They were weird-looking, and outrageously expensive. Delicate thread intricately knotted to form watch fobs and earrings and bracelets. One seller’s display was peculiar, though: just two glass cases, one filled with vintage silver rings and the other with…what looked like jewelry made of brown and black thread. Almost every seller had several glass cases full of sparkling vintage costume pins and rings and necklaces, and I spent hours nursing my iced coffee and oohing over everything. About a year ago, I was at an antiques flea market in Chicago.
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