Hair As a Building Material

Paula Sunshine of Lawshall, Suffolk, UK, built an extension onto her 16th Century thatched house with hair. Cattle hair has been used as a traditional building material, but Sunshine is using primarily human and dog hair:

“Traditionally people would use cattle hair from long-haired cattle.

“But we don’t get many long-haired cattle around here any more so I use human hair.”

She added: “People say it is not thick enough but you just put more in.

“I don’t human hair is a lot different.

“It is just the fibre that you need the hair for and human hair does the same thing as cattle hair for plaster.

“It is the fibres that holds the plaster together.”

Link via The Corner

Photo: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services