Did you know that the oldest found hair in history was from a 9,000-year-old Chinchorro mummy from Arica, northern Chile, who would have thought hair can last that long…

HUMAN MATERIAL LOOP was founded by Zsofia Kollar.

“I was always fascinated by how to change perception as a designer. I did many conceptual projects, but one question was literally on top of my head: my hair. How that one single cut removes all the value from something that was so precious to you before. My practice was always research-based, so when I started looking at hair as a material a lot of other things came to my attention, the fact that the textile industry is the second largest polluter in today’s world, the amount of waste humanity generates, the decreasing amount of raw material, the harm of polyester garments to the body but also to the planet – and it stuck to me altogether. Humanity altered  70% of Earth’s land and exploited every part of the ecosystem, but what are giving back to this ecosystem? We are wasting so many valuable resources because we humans are just too good to be a material. Nature does not waste anything, only humans do.

My own perspective has changed.  What is my value? What is the value of my own waste and what do I contribute to the whole ecosystem? What is design after all? Design is the process of imagining and planning the creation of objects, systems, buildings, vehicles, materials, etc. It is about creating solutions for people. As a designer, I have the responsibility to create solutions.  Do I want to design for the capitalist elite and produce to create more negative impact? NO.

My mission is to create a shift in the value system that will allow future generations to thrive and make this planet better than I found it. It is time for humanity to be part of the ecosystem. We all can be part of the solution or at least give our best to do that. Because what are the two things that are rapidly growing today’s world: waste streams and population.”

What if we can be part of the solution to all of this? I mean, many believe that it’s not up to individuals to change things, only organizations and institutions can. I don’t buy it. We can focus on what we can directly control, we can turn waste into value, trash into treasure. What if we can conduct our life in balance with nature and act as peers in the world’s ecosystem? What if can improve the way how we do things, improving ourselves, improving our tools, and eventually our lives? 

What if we can use human hair waste to change an entire value chain?  We are using animal hair, but after all human hair is the same protein fiber as wool. Our prototype of a sweater is made entirely of human hair: strong like steel, 100% natural, allergy-free. Completely plastic-free with zero cruelty. It is sourced and designed locally, degraded no soil, used no pesticides, polluted no water, 100% biodegradable. 

What if this can be done on a larger scale? The amount of waste is generated by European hair salons would be enough to make at least 100 million sweaters. If these sweaters were made from our waste we would have replaced 60 million polyester sweaters, and saved enough water to let shower every single person in The Netherlands for 1 month for 10 minutes every day.  No animals or humans were suffered in the entire process, cut off emissions on cultivation, transport, and processing.  And that’s only one example of the possible application of human hair: sneakers, outerwear carpets, backpacks, and building elements, just to quote some ideas. 

Our hair can be the solution to the textile industry’s pollution, reduce the demand of plastic, reduce soil degradation and put an end to microplastic pollution that comes from wearing and washing polyester garments. Now the western population have 77% chance of having plastics in their blood, but in no time it will be a guaranteed.  Climate anxiety is increasing in every single person day by day. Losing hope, the lack of action we can do, and feeling hopeless adds to this anxiety. Can you imagine, you go to the hair salon, you cut hair your hair. You look and feel good, and now you are also leaving the salon that your waste is no longer waste. It is the resource of something new. We can finally make ourselves useful for ourselves, not at the expense of others and the planet. At the end of the day, you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution.

We need radical changes in our production systems, together with a group of engineers Human Material Loop  has developed a technology to process human hair into yarn and integrate it into a wide range of applications. We are a team of ambitious designers, scientists, nature lovers, and futurists  who are on a mission to create a true textile revolution and to show that we humans, are not above but part of the ecosystem. Because human waste is nothing less than the resources of the future. 

Together we can change the game and cut our footprint for the sake of this planet. Boost local economies with local sourcing and manufacturing, push for a zero waste society and make the textile and fashion industry guilt-free again. Are you ready to be part of the revolution? Are you ready to be part of the ecosystem?

HUMAN MATERIAL LOOP is located at Brightlands Chemelot Innovation Center, Urmonderbaan 22, 6167 RD Geleen, The Netherlands

HUMAN MATERIAL LOOP is on a mission to create a true textile revolution, the biggest revolution of humankind. We are working on setting up a global supply chain and operations to turn hair waste into material. Cities as farms, waste as material. HUMAN MATERIAL LOOP aims to radicalize our production system and lower the demand for wool, cotton, and synthetic fibers. Introducing a local, biodegradable, guilt and cruelty-free material to various industries, starting with the textile industry.

The largest amount of hair waste comes from barbershops and hair salons. Most of the hair that has been cut gets swept up into a heap on the floor and a dustpan dumped into a garbage bin and disposed of like garbage together with other non recycled materials.

The only hair that can go to make wigs for cancer patients is virgin hair at least 20cm long that has undergone no chemical procedures and is in excellent health. The hair must be very strong and healthy because it has to undergo chemical treatments to become sanitized and able to be used for wigs or pieces.

Once hair is cut and the individual did not make any claims for the cut hair, the hair can be seen as ‘res nullius’ a matter that does not belong to anyone.

Res nullius is a Latin term derived from private Roman law whereby res is not yet the object of rights of any specific subject. Such items are considered ownerless property and are free to be acquired by means of occupatio. Its usage as a legal concept continues in modern civilian legal systems. In the socio-economic sphere if a thing has been abandoned is res nullius, and therefore belongs to the first taker.

HUMAN MATERIAL LOOP believes in the strength of diversity. All hair can be recycled no matter the color, length, or type of hair. Currently, the development phase focuses on the waste management of hair salons, but HUMAN MATERIAL LOOP aims to create a system where each individual can dispose of their hair waste and contribute to our closed-loop closed-loop system.

In Europe, 72 million kg of human hair waste is generated. Waste hair ends up in landfills, causing the expulsion of toxic gases into the environment. Waste hair accumulates in large amounts in the solid waste streams, choking the drainage systems. It takes several years for human hair before decomposing. While we think of human hair only existing on top of our heads, beauty salons generate huge amounts of waste, where waste management of cities only focuses on collecting the waste. The human hair is a natural filamentous biomaterial and chemically, approximately 80% keratin protein is present in human hair. The durability of keratins is a direct consequence of their complex architecture with extremely high molecular weight. Keratin protein is not easily degraded by pepsin, trypsin, and papain because of disulfide bonds, hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions. The world’s population is rapidly rising, waste management and the change to local materials and production is a must for a sustainable future.

DNA is contained in blood, semen, skin cells, tissue, organs, muscle, brain cells, bone, teeth, hair, saliva, mucus, perspiration, fingernails, urine, feces, etc. DNA can be collected from virtually anywhere.

Shed hair has no nuclear DNA. Nuclear DNA comes from the cell nucleus and is inherited from both parents, half from the mother and half from the father. Each person’s nuclear DNA is unique — except for identical twins, who have the same DNA.

The hair follicle at the base of human hair contains cellular material rich in DNA. In order to be used for DNA analysis, the hair must have been pulled from the body – hairs that have been broken off or cut off do not contain Nuclear DNA. Therefore hair that has been cut off by a barber or hairdresser does not contain any Nuclear DNA.

Hair has a strength-to-weight ratio comparable to steel. It can be stretched up to one and a half times its original length before breaking. How a strand of human hair behaves when it is deformed, or stretched? Hair behaves differently depending on how fast or slows it is stretched. The faster hair is stretched, the stronger it is. Hair consists of two main parts – the cortex, which is made up of parallel fibrils, and the matrix, which has an amorphous structure. The matrix is sensitive to the speed at which hair is deformed, while the cortex is not. The combination of these two components is what gives hair the ability to withstand high stress and strain. When hair is stretched, its structure changes in a particular way. At the nanoscale, the cortex fibrils in the hair are each made up of thousands of coiled spiral-shaped chains of molecules called alpha helix chains. As hair is deformed, the alpha helix chains uncoil and become pleated sheet structures known as beta-sheets. This structural change allows hair to handle a large amount of deformation without breaking. This structural transformation is partially reversible. When hair is stretched under a small amount of strain, it can recover its original shape. Stretch it further, the structural transformation becomes irreversible.

Only in the EU, an estimated 72 million kg of human hair waste ends up in landfills and incinerators.  EU is the largest importer of textile products with an import value of 77 billion €. In the EU 16 million tons of textile municipal solid waste was generated in 2015. The amount of textile waste has doubled over the last 20 years. Synthetic fibers are non-biodegradable and can take up to 200 years to decompose. Synthetic fibers are used in 72% of our clothing. 

Every technology that has been created served the comfort of humanity, and every disruption of the ecosystem was because of our comfort – we have been selfishly exploiting everything around us, but aren’t we part of this ecosystem after all? Why do we behave like we are above this ecosystem and believe we can exploit this system endlessly? We know it long enough that we cannot operate in the way we do today, recycled polyester is still releasing microplastic to our blood and lungs, vegan leather is still plastic, and we still poison over 5 million people every year with cotton pesticides – we can believe in the fairy tale that putting a band-aid to the problems will heal the problem itself, but it is your duty to look at your children’s eye to tell them, you didn’t push for a change.

Hair has been playing an important role in our lives, from defining our identity it also shows the religion we associate with or the political ideology we believe in. The history of hair is as old as human history is and hair has been on a long road of usage, applications, and trends. Curious to know more about hair? Ongoing research throughout human history is bringing together some facts and matters that concern hair. Click here and learn more about the history of human hair.

95% of the clothing Americans bought in the 1960s was made in the U.S. By 2008, the figure had dropped drastically to 10%. Today, Americans only make 3%. And the same is coined true for most other regions — profit-oriented Western ready-to-wear conglomerates are sailing their ship elsewhere.

Using locally produced materials has multiple advantages. It reduces the fossil fuels and associated pollutants including greenhouse gas emissions required for shipping. It supports local businesses and feeds money into the regional economy. Small-scale local production helps to eliminate the waste of unneeded products made to adhere to overseas minimums, reduce emissions and energy usage. Local production pushes for an accountable ethical production and labor, where the environmental impacts would directly affect the consumers thereby eyes cannot be closed on overseas factory pollutants and working conditions.

Closed-loop recycling is the process by which waste is collected, recycled, and produced to make something new. Effectively, the waste does a full circle without having a negative impact on the environment.
Closed-loop recycling can be defined as essential waste management for environmental protection which is a production system with a recycling process. The attention of strategy is shifting from disposing of waste to recovery and reproduction by considering the recyclable waste as potential. Compared to open-loop recycling, closed-loop recycling protects the quality loss for new products rather than the reduced functionality. Also, a closed-loop recycling system contains various benefits that reduce the engagement of original materials and protect the environment. Reapply and reproduce a system of closed-loop recycling promotes environmental sustainability and conserves natural resources. It minimizes the dumping of non-degradable waste into the natural ecosystems, maximizing the value and practicality of recycling products. Moreover, the less consumption of resources decreases the risk of harm to the environment and wildlife. It also enables material of high quality to preserve in circulation ensures that there is a demand in the environment for these varieties of materials and this strategy is applied in multiple scopes. To be specific, the system reduces the application of virgin materials, saves occupancy space for non-recyclable materials, and reduces pollution in the environment by creating materials from original resources.

The fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world just after the oil industry. And the environmental damage is increasing as the industry grows. In most of the countries in which garments are produced, untreated toxic wastewaters from textiles factories are dumped directly into the rivers. Wastewater contains toxic substances such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, among others. These are extremely harmful to aquatic life and the health of millions of people living by those river banks. The contamination also reaches the sea and eventually spreads around the globe. Another major source of water contamination is the use of fertilizers for cotton production, which heavily pollutes runoff waters and evaporation waters.

The fashion industry is a major water consumer. A huge quantity of freshwater is used for the dyeing and finishing process for all of our clothes. As a reference, it can take up to 200 tons of fresh water per ton of dyed fabric. Cotton needs a lot of water to grow but is usually cultivated in warm and dry areas. Up to 20,000 liters of water are needed to produce just 1kg of cotton. This generates tremendous pressure on this precious resource, already scarce, and has dramatic ecological consequences such as the desertification of the Aral Sea, where cotton production has entirely drained the water. “85 % of the daily needs in the water of the entire population of India would be covered by the water used to grow cotton in the country. 100 million people in India do not have access to drinking water.”

The textile industry is known for being one of the most polluting industries of the modern world. The carbon footprint left behind by major textile operations is huge. The carbon released throughout the supply chain produces 1.3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per year, which is 10% of global carbon emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Textile mills generate one-fifth of the world’s industrial water pollution and use 20,000 chemicals, many of them carcinogenic, to make clothes. Chinese textile factories alone produce about three billion tons of soot—air pollution linked to respiratory and heart disease—every year by burning coal for energy.

The amount of clothes bought in the EU per person has increased by 40 % in just a few decades, driven by a fall in prices and the increased speed with which fashion is delivered to consumers. Clothing accounts for between 2 % and 10 % of the environmental impact of EU consumption. This impact is often felt in third countries, as most production takes place abroad. The production of raw materials, spinning them into fibers, weaving fabrics, and dyeing require enormous amounts of water and chemicals, including pesticides for growing raw materials such as cotton. Consumer use also has a large environmental footprint due to the water, energy, and chemicals used in washing, tumble drying, and ironing, as well as microplastics, shed into the environment. Less than half of used clothes are collected for reuse or recycling when they are no longer needed, and only 1 % are recycled into new clothes since technologies that would enable recycling clothes into virgin fibers are only starting to emerge.

Hair is composed of tough protein, mainly keratin, which is a combination of amino acids like cysteine, serine, glutamic acid, etc. In elemental form, it contains 51% carbon, 17% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 6% hydrogen, 5% sulfur, and a trace amount of Fe, Mg, and other elements.
Hair is also a biological fiber. With the increase of global energy crisis and ecology risk, the unique advantages of biological fibers such as human hair are not yet implemented in our product cycles. Human hair and its abundance quantity, non-toxic, non-irritation of the skin, high tensile strength, lightweight, thermal insulator, flexibility, and oil-absorbing capability as a material show a great potential to validate human hair as a valuable biological fiber.

The two most important fibers used in the textile industry are cotton and polyester. Cotton dominated the textile market until the end of the last century whereas today most textile products are made of synthetic fibers (63%). The three most importantly synthetic fibers are polyester (55%), nylon (5%), and acrylic (2%).

Cellulosic fiber production (natural fibers from plants) has been growing in volume and market share in recent years. Despite this growth, future projections for fiber production by 2030 still have polyester far outweighing cotton. Some countries consume far more fiber per capita than others – wealthy and developed countries usually consume the most … although there are some new countries starting to consume more fibers per capita as global wealth expands.
Despite the awareness growing for some new more ‘sustainable’ and ‘eco-friendly’ fibers, these fibers make up an incredibly small % of the market, compared to what might be less sustainable fibers and fabrics.

The biggest challenge to overcome for integrating human hair textile into the industry is to change the perception of human hair. Everybody likes human hair as long as it is on their own head, but when it becomes separated from the body it becomes repulsive. Human hair is a well-known material, but once it is cut off from our heads nobody sees it as a material. The perception can be changed, and it is very much needed to make a change in our current production system. The arrogance of the general human species that we stand all above other living creatures needs to be changed, we are part of the whole ecosystem of this planet, it is time to contribute, make use of our own materials.
To challenge the general perception and what impact the integration of human hair textiles can create to the industry a quiz was created to test the perception of human hair and other materials, it can be filled out here. From the answers, it can be concluded that people are open to radical ideas to sustain a livable planet and 98% answered yes to the final question if they would purchase products made out of human hair.

Globalization means that materials and labor can be purchased in different parts of the world where costs are very low. Ethical textile is an umbrella term to describe ethical textile design, production, retail, and purchasing. It covers a range of issues such as working conditions, exploitation, fair trade, sustainable production, the environment, and animal welfare.
Every production starts with harvesting the raw material. Human hair textile and its raw material are in the hand or to be precise on the head of individuals. The growing and cultivating process falls out of the circle of human hair textile production, leaving zero footprints for the growing process. Human hair textile collects the hair waste that individuals decided to leave behind after their beauty treatment. The waste is collected, and due to the lightweight of the hair, the collection is possible by bicycles across cities. The waste hair doesn’t require a thorough cleaning process and can be processed without any chemicals. The coloring of the textile pieces can be implemented by the technology that the beauty industry developed. The coloring process of human hair is advanced with biochemicals that don’t use hazardous chemicals, unlike any other textile dyeing process. Human hair textile uses local production and local designers. Local production and local design lead to a process that can be overseen, monitored, and provide fair wages, proper working conditions, and local labor law.

Currently, we are in the final stages of development and we are testing our technology with renowned research and knowledge institutes and industrial partners. We are working hard to deliver the first market products in 2023. If you want to be the first one to know about the market launch, please sign up for our newsletter.

Did you know that the oldest found hair in history was from a 9,000-year-old Chinchorro mummy from Arica, northern Chile, who would have thought hair can last that long…

HUMAN MATERIAL LOOP was founded by Zsofia Kollar.

“I was always fascinated by how to change perception as a designer. I did many conceptual projects, but one question was literally on top of my head: my hair. How that one single cut removes all the value from something that was so precious to you before. My practice was always research-based, so when I started looking at hair as a material a lot of other things came to my attention, the fact that the textile industry is the second largest polluter in today’s world, the amount of waste humanity generates, the decreasing amount of raw material, the harm of polyester garments to the body but also to the planet – and it stuck to me altogether. Humanity altered  70% of Earth’s land and exploited every part of the ecosystem, but what are giving back to this ecosystem? We are wasting so many valuable resources because we humans are just too good to be a material. Nature does not waste anything, only humans do.

My own perspective has changed.  What is my value? What is the value of my own waste and what do I contribute to the whole ecosystem? What is design after all? Design is the process of imagining and planning the creation of objects, systems, buildings, vehicles, materials, etc. It is about creating solutions for people. As a designer, I have the responsibility to create solutions.  Do I want to design for the capitalist elite and produce to create more negative impact? NO.

My mission is to create a shift in the value system that will allow future generations to thrive and make this planet better than I found it. It is time for humanity to be part of the ecosystem. We all can be part of the solution or at least give our best to do that. Because what are the two things that are rapidly growing in today’s world: waste streams and population.”

What if we can be part of the solution to all of this? I mean, many believe that it’s not up to individuals to change things, only organizations and institutions can. I don’t buy it. We can focus on what we can directly control, we can turn waste into value, trash into treasure. What if we can conduct our life in balance with nature and act as peers in the world’s ecosystem? What if can improve the way how we do things, improving ourselves, improving our tools, and eventually our lives? 

The largest amount of hair waste comes from barbershops and hair salons. Most of the hair that has been cut gets swept up into a heap on the floor and a dustpan dumped into a garbage bin and disposed of like garbage together with other non recycled materials.

The only hair that can go to make wigs for cancer patients is virgin hair at least 20cm long that has undergone no chemical procedures and is in excellent health. The hair must be very strong and healthy because it has to undergo chemical treatments to become sanitized and able to be used for wigs or pieces.

Once hair is cut and the individual did not make any claims for the cut hair, the hair can be seen as ‘res nullius’ a matter that does not belong to anyone.

Res nullius is a Latin term derived from private Roman law whereby res is not yet the object of rights of any specific subject. Such items are considered ownerless property and are free to be acquired by means of occupatio. Its usage as a legal concept continues in modern civilian legal systems. In the socio-economic sphere if a thing has been abandoned is res nullius, and therefore belongs to the first taker.

DNA is contained in blood, semen, skin cells, tissue, organs, muscle, brain cells, bone, teeth, hair, saliva, mucus, perspiration, fingernails, urine, feces, etc. DNA can be collected from virtually anywhere.

Shed hair has no nuclear DNA. Nuclear DNA comes from the cell nucleus and is inherited from both parents, half from the mother and half from the father. Each person’s nuclear DNA is unique — except for identical twins, who have the same DNA.

The hair follicle at the base of human hair contains cellular material rich in DNA. In order to be used for DNA analysis, the hair must have been pulled from the body – hairs that have been broken off or cut off do not contain Nuclear DNA. Therefore hair that has been cut off by a barber or hairdresser does not contain any Nuclear DNA.

Only in the EU, an estimated 72 million kg of human hair waste ends up in landfills and incinerators.  EU is the largest importer of textile products with an import value of 77 billion €. In the EU 16 million tons of textile municipal solid waste was generated in 2015. The amount of textile waste has doubled over the last 20 years. Synthetic fibers are non-biodegradable and can take up to 200 years to decompose. Synthetic fibers are used in 72% of our clothing. 

Every technology that has been created served the comfort of humanity, and every disruption of the ecosystem was because of our comfort – we have been selfishly exploiting everything around us, but aren’t we part of this ecosystem after all? Why do we behave like we are above this ecosystem and believe we can exploit this system endlessly? We know it long enough that we cannot operate in the way we do today, recycled polyester is still releasing microplastic to our blood and lungs, vegan leather is still plastic, and we still poison over 5 million people every year with cotton pesticides – we can believe in the fairy tale that putting a band-aid to the problems will heal the problem itself, but it is your duty to look at your children’s eye to tell them, you didn’t push for a change.

95% of the clothing Americans bought in the 1960s was made in the U.S. By 2008, the figure had dropped drastically to 10%. Today, Americans only make 3%. And the same is coined true for most other regions — profit-oriented Western ready-to-wear conglomerates are sailing their ship elsewhere.

Using locally produced materials has multiple advantages. It reduces the fossil fuels and associated pollutants including greenhouse gas emissions required for shipping. It supports local businesses and feeds money into the regional economy. Small-scale local production helps to eliminate the waste of unneeded products made to adhere to overseas minimums, reduce emissions and energy usage. Local production pushes for an accountable ethical production and labor, where the environmental impacts would directly affect the consumers thereby eyes cannot be closed on overseas factory pollutants and working conditions.

Closed-loop recycling is the process by which waste is collected, recycled, and produced to make something new. Effectively, the waste does a full circle without having a negative impact on the environment.
Closed-loop recycling can be defined as essential waste management for environmental protection which is a production system with a recycling process. The attention of strategy is shifting from disposing of waste to recovery and reproduction by considering the recyclable waste as potential. Compared to open-loop recycling, closed-loop recycling protects the quality loss for new products rather than the reduced functionality. Also, a closed-loop recycling system contains various benefits that reduce the engagement of original materials and protect the environment. Reapply and reproduce a system of closed-loop recycling promotes environmental sustainability and conserves natural resources. It minimizes the dumping of non-degradable waste into the natural ecosystems, maximizing the value and practicality of recycling products. Moreover, the less consumption of resources decreases the risk of harm to the environment and wildlife. It also enables material of high quality to preserve in circulation ensures that there is a demand in the environment for these varieties of materials and this strategy is applied in multiple scopes. To be specific, the system reduces the application of virgin materials, saves occupancy space for non-recyclable materials, and reduces pollution in the environment by creating materials from original resources.

The fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world just after the oil industry. And the environmental damage is increasing as the industry grows. In most of the countries in which garments are produced, untreated toxic wastewaters from textiles factories are dumped directly into the rivers. Wastewater contains toxic substances such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, among others. These are extremely harmful to aquatic life and the health of millions of people living by those river banks. The contamination also reaches the sea and eventually spreads around the globe. Another major source of water contamination is the use of fertilizers for cotton production, which heavily pollutes runoff waters and evaporation waters.

The fashion industry is a major water consumer. A huge quantity of freshwater is used for the dyeing and finishing process for all of our clothes. As a reference, it can take up to 200 tons of fresh water per ton of dyed fabric. Cotton needs a lot of water to grow but is usually cultivated in warm and dry areas. Up to 20,000 liters of water are needed to produce just 1kg of cotton. This generates tremendous pressure on this precious resource, already scarce, and has dramatic ecological consequences such as the desertification of the Aral Sea, where cotton production has entirely drained the water. “85 % of the daily needs in the water of the entire population of India would be covered by the water used to grow cotton in the country. 100 million people in India do not have access to drinking water.”

The textile industry is known for being one of the most polluting industries of the modern world. The carbon footprint left behind by major textile operations is huge. The carbon released throughout the supply chain produces 1.3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per year, which is 10% of global carbon emissions – more than international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Hair is composed of tough protein, mainly keratin, which is a combination of amino acids like cysteine, serine, glutamic acid, etc. In elemental form, it contains 51% carbon, 17% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 6% hydrogen, 5% sulfur, and a trace amount of Fe, Mg, and other elements.
Hair is also a biological fiber. With the increase of global energy crisis and ecology risk, the unique advantages of biological fibers such as human hair are not yet implemented in our product cycles. Human hair and its abundance quantity, non-toxic, non-irritation of the skin, high tensile strength, lightweight, thermal insulator, flexibility, and oil-absorbing capability as a material show a great potential to validate human hair as a valuable biological fiber.

The two most important fibers used in the textile industry are cotton and polyester. Cotton dominated the textile market until the end of the last century whereas today most textile products are made of synthetic fibers (63%). The three most important synthetic fibers are polyester (55%), nylon (5%), and acrylic (2%).

Cellulosic fiber production (natural fibers from plants) has been growing in volume and market share in recent years. Despite this growth, future projections for fiber production by 2030 still have polyester far outweighing cotton. Some countries consume far more fiber per capita than others – wealthy and developed countries usually consume the most … although there are some new countries starting to consume more fibers per capita as global wealth expands.
Despite the awareness growing for some new more ‘sustainable’ and ‘eco-friendly’ fibers, these fibers make up an incredibly small % of the market, compared to what might be less sustainable fibers and fabrics.

The biggest challenge to overcome for integrating human hair textile into the industry is to change the perception of human hair. Everybody likes human hair as long as it is on their own head, but when it becomes separated from the body it becomes repulsive. Human hair is a well-known material, but once it is cut off from our heads nobody sees it as a material. The perception can be changed, and it is very much needed to make a change in our current production system. The arrogance of the general human species that we stand all above other living creatures needs to be changed, we are part of the whole ecosystem of this planet, it is time to contribute, make use of our own materials.
To challenge the general perception and what impact the integration of human hair textiles can create to the industry a quiz was created to test the perception of human hair and other materials, it can be filled out here. From the answers, it can be concluded that people are open to radical ideas to sustain a livable planet and 98% answered yes to the final question if they would purchase products made out of human hair.

Globalization means that materials and labor can be purchased in different parts of the world where costs are very low. Ethical textile is an umbrella term to describe ethical textile design, production, retail, and purchasing. It covers a range of issues such as working conditions, exploitation, fair trade, sustainable production, the environment, and animal welfare.
Every production starts with harvesting the raw material. Human hair textile and its raw material are in the hand or to be precise on the head of individuals. The growing and cultivating process falls out of the circle of human hair textile production, leaving zero footprints for the growing process. Human hair textile collects the hair waste that individuals decided to leave behind after their beauty treatment. The waste is collected, and due to the lightweight of the hair, the collection is possible by bicycles across cities. The waste hair doesn’t require a thorough cleaning process and can be processed without any chemicals. The coloring of the textile pieces can be implemented by the technology that the beauty industry developed. The coloring process of human hair is advanced with biochemicals that don’t use hazardous chemicals, unlike any other textile dyeing process. Human hair textile uses local production and local designers. Local production and local design lead to a process that can be overseen, monitored, and provide fair wages, proper working conditions, and local labor law.

Currently, we are in the final stages of development and we are testing our technology with renowned research and knowledge institutes and industrial partners. We are working hard to deliver the first market products in 2023. If you want to be the first one to know about the market launch, please sign up for our newsletter.