Leila's Hair Museum
Leila's Hair Museum is a museum in Independence, Missouri that displays examples of hairwork dating back to the 18th century.
Hair art[edit]
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]
Museum history[edit]
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]
The collection[edit]
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]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Castaneda, Erin (7 August 2009). "Hair art history unlocked". LJWorld. Retrieved 7 December 2009.
- ^ a b c d Hendricks, Mike (18 February 2008). "Mike Hendricks: Go ahead, Philly, and try to top this". The Kansas City Star. pp. 1–3.
- ^ a b "Leila's Hair Museum (Closed), Independence, Missouri". RoadsideAmerica.com. Retrieved 2024-06-03.
- ^ a b c Rombeck, Terry (2005-10-09). "Museum Tangled in History of Hair". LJWorld. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
- ^ "Human Hair Ornaments" (PDF). Minnesota History. 44/2 (Summer 1974). Minnesota Historical Society collections: 70–74.
- ^ "Leila's Hair Museum". Facebook. 2023-10-10. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
- ^ "Leila's Hair Museum". Facebook. 2023-11-01. Retrieved 2024-06-02.
- ^ "J! Archive - Show #7205, aired 2016-01-01". www.j-archive.com. Retrieved 2017-01-19.
External links[edit]
- MikeRowe.com
- Mike Rowe's Somebody's Got To Do It from CNN, episode 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qQp2Ff3cKk