A 60 year-old retired teacher who lives in Chongquing, China saved up her own hair for 11 years and used it to make a sweater and matching hat. Xiang Renxian managed to collect 110,000 strands of her hair, which she picked out of her hair brush every time she brushed her hair. She spun the hair into a lightweight yarn and used it to create an open mesh sweater.
You may wonder how Xiang arrived at her tally of the number of strands. The answer is that every day she recorded the number of fallen hairs which she kept. Each strand was about 30 inches long, and Xiang used 15 strands of hair to make each length of yarn.
Xiang made the sweater for herself. She made the matching cap for her husband, as a gift for his patience during her eleven-year mission.
I have so many questions about this. Is it warm? Is it scratchy? Did she use a spinning wheel, or a spindle, or just twist the hair with her fingers? What was it like to work with? How did she keep the hairs without getting them tangled?
And most importantly: whyyyyyyyyy?
Based on the description of Xiang using "hooked needles," I suspect that this sweater and cap may actually have been crocheted, rather than knit. In Asia, they don't tend to draw as distinct a line between knitting and crochet as we do in the West. Shanghai Daily's description of Xiang's individual strands of yarn make me think that she may have been using crochet, which lends itself to working with shorter pieces of yarn.
Xiang reportedly began this project to preserve her lustrous black hair. She has certainly done so. I for one will never forget her project.
Image courtesy ShanghaiDaily.com
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