HAIR STORIES: ZSÓFIA KOLLÁR
Image: Human Hair Jumper; Human Material Loop/Li Jiahao. Photo: Kwadwo Amfo.
Zsófia Kollár, a Hungarian designer based in Amsterdam, is founder of Human Material Loop, which proposes that human hair can be recycled and integrated into textiles, thus reducing the environmental impact of the world’s second largest polluter (after oil): the fashion industry. The project is in partnership with chemical and textile engineers and factories to research how to make this idea viable on an industrial scale. “In the past, people have used all kinds of materials around them. For example, ropes made of hair were a very common thing. But nowadays, we seem to have forgotten that human hair is also a natural material,” says Kollár.
Image: Human Hair Jumper; Human Material Loop/Li Jiahao. Photo: Kwadwo Amfo.
Kollár has recently explored the relationship between objects and culture and - by extension - clothes in her book, Object-oriented Identity: Cultural Belongings from our Recent Past. “Social media manipulates us,” she has said in a recent interview. “We are slowly turning into advertisements ourselves…” On Human Material Loop’s website there are a number of stats, including the fact that we own five times more clothes than our grandparents. Kollár avoids buying new garments or branded items with logos. But it’s not only clothes that end up in landfill, so does 72 million kg of human hair waste.
“I am trying to help people become more open-minded to different materials again and hopefully, in the future, wearing a jumper made of human hair will be normal.”
A prototype has already been made, designed by Li Jiahao in The Hague. Looking distinctly gingery, with variations in colouring and loose bristly fibre knit, the jumper is made from spun and knitted human hair yarn. One can imagine it changes hues under different light conditions in a very distinctive way. I ask Kollár how comfortable the garment is to wear. “The comfort is relative and depends on the sensitivity of the skin.,” she replies. “It feels like a rough Icelandic or Norwegian wool and it’s extremely warm.” 
Image: Dutch Blond Sweater; 100% recycled Dutch blond hair. Photo: Zsófia Kollár.
What about different kinds of hair, is my next question. “Any hair can be used, but for certain types we have to adjust our process,” she says. “For example, African hair is characterised by tight curls and kinks, and that requires a different process to European hair.”
With the amount of shorn hair significantly increased following lockdown and the rush to return to hairdressers, Kollár will have had plenty of raw material of all types to knit from.