a hair-brained idea--making garden twine from my own hair

I've been loving the spindle I got from Raven's Flax to Linen kickstarter (she sells the same spindle in her learn to spin flax kit). Lately, I've been spinning wool that I blend to match my hair, and then making headbands out of it.

Spinning wool to match my hair, got me thinking about spinning wool from my hair. So, I tried it out with the hair from my hair brush, both mixing it with sheepswool, as well as spinning it by itself. I'm probably doing something wrong, because it has a lot of weird bits sticking out. And, MAN, it's scratchy. So, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be using it for anything nice. BUT, I use a lot of twine for training branches and growing peas. And, supposedly deer are mildly repelled by human hair. What if I spun my hair and used it for twine? I'm thinking maybe I'd get more use out of it than just composting the hair. And, maybe the hair would decompose a bit slower than the twine I currently use?

Anyone ever spin their own hair?

Depending on how straight or curly your hair is, you may find it works better to treat it like flax rather than wool. But it should work in the short term as twine. It will get brittle when exposed to the elements, so it might not last long.

Well it's strong and can be long.. But it's slippery..  It might take some flipping to get the grains to catch to prevent slip.. And adding some curl.. But a little binder like a plant sap or tar pitch ect, might do the trick

I knew a man with very long hair who would clean his hair brush and then braid it into a thin rope. I never saw him use it for anything but I saw the hair rope. It looked like it would work well for garden twine

It's interesting that people are mentioning the hair being slippery. Maybe since mine is curly, it wasn't very slippery. It was about as hard to "draft" (pull out the right amount of fibres to spin) as it is with wool. Sometimes it was a bit harder to draft.

It does seem pretty strong, even though I just spun it and folded it in half so it could twist against itself to twine it into two-ply. I then used it to help train down the branch of my pear tree, and the yarn never felt like it was going to break.

I feel like I'm not using the right words for how I made the twine, but my brain's kind of fragmented from my son's school Zoom meeting this morning.  So, I'm just going to post pictures!

I once told my wife that I should grow my hair out so I can use it as rope in a survival situation.. it did not fly with her lol.

Nicole, your hair looks like the wool I am preparing for spinning now! If I had hair like that I think I'd try to use it too. But my hair is totally different, it's (almost) straight and smooth (slippery). And I cut it short.

Marc Dube wrote:I once told my wife that I should grow my hair out so I can use it as rope in a survival situation.. it did not fly with her lol.

I think if I cut my hair short my partner would be devastated. Funny how different people's preferences for hair can be.

If you have straight hair, you might try spinning from the fold:

Take a “lock” of hair, however harvested, and bend it over your finger.   Spin from the top of your finger (the halfway point of your “lock”).

This approximates a woolen spin. It might help with the slippery factor. This is a common way to spin long wools. If you want to make twine, put in a lot of twist to make it strong. Way more twist than you would use with wool. This will also help to mitigate the slipping. When you ply, if you want to make it strong, try a cable ply.  To do that, first do a two ply with lots of ply twist. Make 2 lengths of two ply ‘yarn.’  Then, ply the two lengths together.

Google spinning from the fold and you will probably find some videos to help you.

Human hair will never make good yarn. But twine .... I’m gonna have to experiment!  Too bad I have a pandemic haircut. But my brother has long hair ..,..

Laura
Pretty good spinner. So much fiber, so little time.

I don't know if I told you yet but I love this thread title.

I couldn't help remembering a Ramblin' Jack Elliott song: The Sky Above, The Mud Below.
Here's video: .

I figured it was time for an update! Things I've learned:

• Hair twine does last longer than conventional hemp or flax twine. Normal garden twine breaks down after one year for me. It gets brittle and snaps, and has to be replaced each year. The hair twine still isn't brittle, after a year or two.
• It does repel deer! The deer munch on my plants. I put twine around them. They stop munching on that plant. They stopped eating tomatoes as well as plums that were protected by twine.
• My husband is totally grossed out by the idea
• I brush out enough hair in 3-4 months to make about 40 feet of hair twine.
• How to spin and twine better! Having free material to spin, and not caring about how it looks, has given me a lot of practice spinning and twining!

All in all, I consider this experiment a success. It's free, it allows me to practice my spinning and twining, and it works! The only downside is the grossness factor. It's probably not something I'd share with people new to homesteading/permaculture, because they'd probably think I was insane!! (It's definetly higher up on the Wheaton Eco Scale, hahaha!)

Ok, you've sold me on the idea! I'd assumed it would break down faster than normal twine. I could definitely use a string that repels deer!

Lord knows I shed enough hair every day, might as well make something useful out of it.

Last evening, over dinner, talking about crop planning and losses to deer and/or rabbits of flowers planted outside of our deer + rabbit fenced field... I mentioned the human-hair-deer-repellant twine idea and got a reply "Oh, that's interesting!"
(Instead of the usual "What the? why? NO, you are NOT saving!... what are you going to use your hair for anyways?!?!")
Followed by, "I wonder if we could use the dogs' hair too?" (I think she may have meant instead ) Which might actually amount to something.. since the two fur factories Pomeranians need frequent grooming.

I wonder just how much would be necessary to keep the deer from mowing down the hosta buds? One twine over the top of the row? A tuft or pom-pom (HA! HA! ) on a stake at each plant? Encircling? a hair-twine netting over the row?

Would it help against voles too?
I don't have deer here. The last time I saw rabbits was years ago. But in the allotment garden I saw holes in the ground and I think those are voles. My hair is too short for spinning, but I can make 'tufts' and put them in the vole-holes ...