hat made from
Horsehair, 19th century. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum Collection. Textiles from horse-tail hair are used in
upholstery fabric, light hairs being reserved for dyes and black being used as is for their distinctive natural hue. Hair cloth has also been used in the panels of men's suit jackets. The wearing of haircloth was often also associated with the poverty and religious ascetism. There are suggestions that woven tent coverings of black goat hair were used in the 1st century C.E. in
Cilicium, Turkey. and, as
woven mats, suggested as possible solutions to
water pollution. However, it has also been used to dehumanise communities in times of war. During the
Holocaust of
World War II, the hair of
Polish Jews in
Auschwitz were used by the
SS in the manufacture of coarse fabrics. veil with a gold
embroidered brow strap, 20th century. Produced in
Egypt. Auckland Museum Collection.
Suit construction In
tailoring applications, haircloth is woven using cotton
warp and horsehair
weft. In traditional suit construction, haircloth is used to stiffen the front panels in men's suit jackets, and
Savile Row tailors still make bespoke suits this way. However, in modern suits, haircloth is often replaced with synthetic fabrics.
Horse hair veils Horse hair veils, known as
burqa, were worn by women from the Persian Gulf in the late 19th century. This fashion trend then spread among the women of
Afghanistan through wives of the upper-classes. A similar fashion is seen in
Istanbul,
Turkey,
peche and
lisam of the 16th century, and the
yashmak of the 17th and 18th are also made of
horsehair. This is attributed to the influences of a shared cultural sphere between
Joseon Korea and
Jiangnan established through lesser known trade routes.
Horse-hair sieves , Germany. A man weaving the wooden frame of a
sieve.
Jost Amman and
Hans Sachs, 16th century. In
Scandinavia,
central Europe and
Asia, horsehair sieves were crafted by common folk of
Sweden,
Slovenia and
Japan. In
Škofja Loka, this was exported to the rest of
Continental Europe,
Africa and
Asia minor. When the sieve trade saw a gradual decline in the late 19th century, horse fibres began to be used instead in
tapestries.
Haircloth mats In 19th century
Northern England, haircloth was employed in the drying of
malt for
brewing in place of
perforated metals which would scorch the
grain. It would be spread over the
kiln floor to keep
grain from dropping down into the furnace. Hair is woven into thick threads which are then
braided into blankets due to the insulating properties provided by the coarse knotting resulting from its manufacturing process. The textile was also used as
banners,
altar covers and
girdles. The rough was used as
bedspreads as a show of devotion in
Gaul between the 5th and 9th centuries. embroidered
plain weave of
camelid hair with needle-knitted border, c. 2nd to 1st century BCE. Honolulu Museum of Art. Photograph by
Hiart == History and archeology ==