Leila's Hair Museum is a museum in Independence, Missouri that displays examples of hairwork dating back to the 18th century.
Leila's Hair Museum is a museum in Independence, Missouri that displays examples of hairwork dating back to the 18th century.
Hairwork is a form of art that began in the 16th century or earlier, and flourished in the Victorian era. A collection of hair from family, friends, or a gathering such as a wedding, was made into a hair wreath by making flowers of the hair. It was then put into a shadow box frame. Wreaths were also made as memorial pieces using hair from the deceased. Hairwork was used by people wanting to keep a memento of a loved one before the invention of photography. [1] Hairwork also consisted of necklaces, bracelets, rings, lockets, paintings and medallions embellished with strands of hair. [1]
Leila Cohoon is a retired cosmetology teacher living in Independence, Missouri, who started collecting hair in 1956 and considers it to be her life work. [2] She has had a lifelong fascination with hair, and considers it one of the most interesting parts of the human body. [3] [4] In 1990, having begun to run out of space in her home for her hairwork collection, Cohoon opened her hair museum in a small front room in the Independence School of Cosmetology (which she founded in 1960). [4] Later, she moved her hair museum a few blocks from the old location so as to be able to expand. [4] The new location for the museum consists of multiple rooms with walls covered from top to bottom with hairworks. [5] The museum closed down during the COVID-19 pandemic, [6] and reopened in autumn 2023 with the caveat that visitors must schedule an appointment via email. [7]
Leila’s Hair Museum has more than 300 wreaths and over 2,000 pieces of jewelry, many of which date back to before the year 1900. [2] Among her artifacts are a framed assemblage of hair from every member of a chapter of the League of Women Voters, and two frames with hair shorn from sisters who both entered a convent. [3] Her oldest exhibit is a brooch dated 1680. [1]
Collecting the hair of famous people is secondary to Cohoon's goal of preserving hair art; that being said, there are also exhibits that include the hair of famous people. [2] Hair from Michael Jackson is in the museum, which garnered the museum a mention in a Jeopardy! question on December 30, 2016. [8] The museum also has hair from Elvis Presley, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, Aaron Burr, Marilyn Monroe, singer Jenny Lind, and abolitionist John Brown. [2]
Jackson County is located in the western portion of the U.S. state of Missouri, on the border with Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 717,204. making it the second-most populous county in the state.
A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse since at least classical antiquity. In some instances, barbershops were also public forums. They were the locations of open debates, voicing public concerns, and engaging citizens in discussions about contemporary issues.
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Hairwork, or jewelry or artwork made of human hair, has appeared throughout the history of craft work, particularly to be used for private worship or mourning. From the Middle Ages through the early twentieth century, memorial hair jewelry remained common. Hair, considered to be a remnant off the person it was cut from, also has often played a part in myths and legends; in a Swedish book of proverbs, one can read that “rings and bracelets of hair increase love”. One example can be found in Denmark, at Rosensborg’s palace, which is a bracelet of precious metal with a simple braided lock of hair - a gift from King Christian IV (1577-1648) to his queen. Another example would be the rings commemorating the execution of King Charles I of England (1600-1649), which circulated among his faithful supporters. Other famous people who owned hair jewelry include Napoleon, Admiral Nelson, Queen Victoria and her large family, Christina Nilsson and Jenny Lind.
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A hair museum is a museum that has displays of hair, hair art, and/or items or paintings made using hair, for example that of celebrities. Hair museums date back to the 19th century.
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