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© Horniman Museum and Gardens

© Horniman Museum and Gardens

Hair: Untold Stories

Fri 10 February - Sun 29 October 2023

Weston Park Museum

There’s more to hair than washing, combing and cutting. It’s an extraordinary, renewable fibre with a range of unexpected possibilities. This exhibition put the substance before the style and unfurls the untold stories of hair.

 

From jewellery and dresses to armour and environmental protection, the exhibition highlighted the remarkable qualities of hair as a material. It also explored our complex relationship with hair both on, and off, our heads – how and why we care so much about our ‘crowning glory’, and how hair is entangled with society’s expectations and our relationships to others.

The exhibition weaved in the work of artists, film makers and designers with a wide range of objects and archive material reflecting our connection with our hair. Together, they told personal, powerful and surprising stories, spanning Sheffield hair salons to the global hair trade.

Hair: Untold Stories is the inaugural exhibition created for the Museums and Galleries Network for Exhibition Touring (MAGNET). It was curated by the Horniman Museum and Gardens, in partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London, Tullie House Museum and Gardens and Sheffield Museums Trust.

 

This display has now closed

Weston Park Museum

Western Bank

Sheffield

S10 2TP

Black and white photograph of a black woman with long, braided hair which comes around her neck to look like a necklace. She is holding both hands to her neck and is also wearing large, comb-shaped, hair accessories and hoop earrings. She is looking directly at the camera with a serious expression and stands in front of a patterned background.

The Right to Opacity, Black Series, 2020

© Kedisha Coakley

Exhibition highlights

  • A red, yellow and brown helmet with two side pieces which look like feathers

    Man's headgear, Nagaland, India, mid 20th century

    © Horniman Museum and Gardens

  • An unusually shaped comb with scalloped edging along the top and curved sides. It has a tortoise shell pattern and a faded sticker on the front that says 'U.S Customs' on it.

    Tortoiseshell comb, Sri Lanka, 19th century

    © Horniman Museum and Gardens

  • Black and white photograph of a black woman with long, braided hair which comes around her neck to look like a necklace. She is holding both hands to her neck and is also wearing large, comb-shaped, hair accessories and hoop earrings. She is looking directly at the camera with a serious expression and stands in front of a patterned background.

    The Right to Opacity, Black Series, 2020

    © Kedisha Coakley

  • An early 20th century advertisement featuring a stylised portrait illustration of a white-skinned woman on the right hand-side. She has is smiling and has brown hair that is styled into soft waves and is wearing make-up. There is a flattened hairnet behind her head in a rounded shape to look like a halo. On the left-hand side of the advertisement, the words 'medium brown', 'bobbed sized', double mesh', 'Fashionette', 'hair net', 'made of human hair' and 'sanitary dependable' are included.

    Human hair net, early 20th century

    © Horniman Museum and Gardens

  • A sculpture made from repurposed ebony and human hair. A black, shiny object that looks like an old fashioned candlestick telephone receiver with long, shiny, styled, auburn hair connecting the listener and receiver.

    Hair Receivers

    © Jane Hoodless

  • A postcard featuring an illustrated portrait of a Victorian-looking man who is wearing a formal shirt and dinner jacket with a floral buttonhole. Real hair has been stuck onto the card to depict his hair and beard.

    Hairy postcard, Germany, 1900s s

    © Horniman Museum and Garden

  • An advertisement featuring an illustration of a black woman with an afro hairstyle in front of a series of coloured rings in orange, pink, yellow and white. The overall background is green. Below the illustration is text stating 'Royal Shield naturals live a fuller life' in big letters with further description of the product below it alongside images of the hair product in its packaging.

    Royal Shield advertisement

    © Horniman Museum and Gardens

  • A faux taxidermy tabby cat head mounted on a wooden shield painted duck egg blue

    Pet hair faux taxidermy, Bumble & Earwig, 2021

    © Horniman Museum and Gardens

  • A traditional-looking barristers wig on a stand. The hair is grey and it has five rows of horizontal curls along the sides and back of the head with two ponytails hanging down the back of the neck.

    Horsehair barrister's wig, 20th century

    © Horniman Museum and Gardens

  • A photograph of a collection of historic and contemporary combs and brushes.

    Combs

    © Horniman Museum and Gardens

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