hair
Project by Critical Matters / Media Lab:
Credits: Behnaz Farahi, Frank Cong, Berfin Ataman, Milin Tunsiricharoengul
Hair is a naturally abundant material that can be renewable and is often overlooked as a potential resource for innovative applications. We have been working on making long hair-like fibers by combining polymers and synthesized keratin from waste human hair. To create the hair-like strands, we have been trying new fabrication methods.
The experimental framework with polymers s involves a series of controlled heat treatments to determine optimal conditions for fiber production, focusing on polymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL), polypropylene (PP), and polylactic acid (PLA), each selected for their properties that mimic natural hair characteristics.
To extract keratin from waste human hair, we followed protocols established by Kevin Kit Parker’s lab. This approach not only recycles biological waste but also taps into the intrinsic properties of hair that are difficult to replicate synthetically.
Below are illustrations of heating units developed for pulling hair-like fibers that remain fluid in the heating unit, and once pulled out, they keep their fiber-like shape after cooling. This is a new fabrication method currently in development. We plan to design modular heating units that can take various formations needed to create the desired final shape for the hair-like fibers. We are testing our first heating unit.
This unit was first prototyped in PLA using 3D printing and has recently been milled from aluminum. We are in the process of testing the modular heating systems.
Various methods were tried to extract the hair like filaments some of which were pull-out method and centrifuge method. Some results shown before.
