A brief foray into Hair as an art material.

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Well, with the COVID- 19 lockdown , I have been thinking of new ways to take my art places and that’s when I stumbled upon Hair art”- literally making embroidery art with human hair. Ya, you heard it right ! Human hair . My sister thought that was creepy but can you believe that it is actually an art- form in Buddhist ,tantra practice and also in Hindu Shakti traditions. Some might scoff at it but it is no joke or an eccentric modern art – it’s an ancient craft, based on deep meaning , symbolism and spirituality.
And I too, tried it out too ! It is actually amazing and the result is unique and different to say the least and it is also eco friendly . If only we could use all our hair for art instead of clogging our sewages with tonnes and tonnes of human hair, it would be so nice!

There is a guy in England who actually makes mold-able furniture from waste human hair. This guy, Ronald Thompson is an eco entrepreneur, who thought about this crazy idea and it actually works! Very few people know that hair takes decades to disintegrate and causes a lot of urban pollution , so I guess, Hair art, hair furniture is really a thing of the future !



The tradition ……
Traditionally, “Hair Art” in which the artist / embroiderer uses her own hair and sews beautiful designs and portraits of Gods and Goddesses and Thangkas, dates back centuries.  The craftswoman usually uses fallen  hair as threads, after washing them with egg yolk and water! Some art historians say that this technique dates back to the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907), with a resurgence of this practice in the Ming period (1368-1644) and was related to two historical factors:  First, was the the spread of the cult of “Guanyin”,(the Goddess of Mercy, embodiment of maternal compassion and love) the most prevalent Chinese female Goddess, and  secondly the proliferation of embroidering among Chinese girls. To this day, Hair embroidery is considered sacred and mystical and is done in parts of South China and is fast catching up as a fad in US and European nations.
In ancient Buddhist tantra teachings, hair is an important part of the woman’s power or Yin and hair of the virgin , devout girls;  have been used for centuries to embroider sacred tapestries which transmit the wisdom of spiritual leaders through the  art form.Not only in Buddhism but also in Hindu Shakta traditions, the hair of Yoginis( female shakti saints)is treasured and used to sew sacred symbols and portraits. It is indeed an esoteric tradition of yore, with a lot of meaning and culture. 
Art historians and researchers believe that hair embroidery, apart from the artistic part of it , has deep religious connotations, and cultural significance because women would create an object out of a part of their own body thereby, symbolising the intimate relationship they have with the Goddess Guanyin.In this way, women sought favors from Guanyin, asking her, for instance, to heal illness or fulfill their wishes by using their hair to embroider their Thangka. According to Himalayan texts dating back thousands of years, hair virgin girls who are spiritually radiant, loving and carrying the blood of sages, can embody and transmit the energy of a Dharma lineage and should be used for making prayer symbols and drawing. These precious embroideries are no mere artwork but rather extraordinary yantras of transcendence, connecting the viewer to spiritual  energy directly from the universal source. These cherished hair-stitched embroideries transcend culture and religion, transmitting wisdom and protection through every strand of hair. 

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