The Unsettling Reason Victorians Used Human Hair To Make Creepy Trinkets
We’re in Victorian Britain, and across the country people are being swept up by a weird and sinister craze. Everywhere you look, locals are adorning themselves with unusual jewelry. The intricate pieces might seem perfectly normal at first, but look a little closer, and you’ll soon realize that things aren’t quite as they seem. It turns out that these creepy adornments are actually symbolic of a dark fixation that’s gripping society. But what’s so strange about these particular items? Well, they’re made out of human hair!
And it’s not just jewelry that the Victorians made out of hair – even though that’s strange enough. They also used the “material” to make wreaths and other decorative pieces for their homes. Some people, in fact, actually pulverized it to create a pigment they could use for painting!
This creepy trend had been around for a long time, but it really blew up after Queen Victoria herself took to it. She was, after all, about as famous as you could possibly be in the 19th century. And when the monarch started wearing a hair necklace, many of her subjects across Britain soon followed suit.
But this wasn’t merely a British craze, as people in America also began to use hair in this weird way. Strangely, the trend really seemed to gain traction here as the United States descended into one of its darkest ever periods. The American Civil War kicked off in 1861, and during this time hair art became really popular.
Increasing numbers of women began creating artworks out of human hair across the United States. It was such a popular thing to do, in fact, that you could even pick up tips about it in popular magazines! Despite how disturbing it might seem, the trend had become a mainstream phenomenon.
