| Original Message: Hair vs Nylon |
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Hi Nishedha, I have seen these beads and others similar for many years, so I recognize them. I have also seen a number of hair artifacts—though not usually individual beads. Necklaces, lanyards, or fobs usually have places where the knotting expands, and looks like a chain of beads, but the work is actually continuous. Human hair items were either mourning articles, or they were made by women for their husbands or betrothed. The work is predictable, following a conventional set of variations, but there is also considerable individuality in how the parts (techniques—what we would call "stitches" in embroidery) are put together. The most common color for hair items is brown—because among English people brown is the most common hair color. Blond and black hair is much less common (in my experience—but let's remember, I have not examined hundreds of examples in my career, but I have seen dozens). How to tell hair from nylon is a lot like distinguishing between amber and plastic, or coral and glass. Hair is a natural product, whereas nylon is synthetic. Hair, being a mammalian growth, has a structure. It's shape, length, diameter, and variation—and whether straight or curly. (Not all hairs from a head are the same length, diameter, or color; and there is usually some semblance of structure—the cuticle of the shaft, that gives it knap. In contrast, nylon fibers are extruded, are usually unnaturally shiny, and have no knap. It is not unusual for nylon to be dyed dead-black. Human hair—even the hair of Chinese, Polynesians, and American Indians is not truly black. It is very dark brown. (I've been told that only a small group of Russians have truly black hair. I don't know if this is accurate or not.) So one tells the difference by considering the art—whether the item is hand woven or knotted, and by how the fiber appears. Cheers, Jamey All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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