Hair chair 'a bit itchy', says Birmingham student creator

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Alice Evans in the hair chairImage source, PA Media
Image caption,

Alice Evans said hair "it is just part of every single human being"

An artist who weaved a chair from hair collected from barber shop floors, friends and one man's back wants to challenge what people see as "disgusting"

Alice Evans, 23, from Bromsgrove, made the chair to challenge people to think about about re-usable resources.

She said "social conditioning" made people think off-cuts were rubbish but "it's a resource that could be used".

The student's work will be on display at Birmingham City University.

Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

The chair is made of 10cm patches of human hair stitched together with plant twine

Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

All the collected hair was washed with soap and water before being used to make the chair

Ms Evans spent two months collecting hair from barber shops twice a week to create the chair, which also contains hair from six friends, including a man who donated his back hair "because he wanted to be a part of it".

She said the seat was "a bit itchy" but still manages to uses it for meditation which, she says, "plays on your senses".

"I would be aware of all these people [who have gone into it]," she said. "It is literally loads of people."

Image source, PA Media
Image caption,

Ms Evans collected hair from five barbers in Birmingham for the piece

The design student admitted some people refused to sit in the hairy chair.

"It's just hair and when it is on our head we're so attached to it, and then, when it's chopped off, it's disgusting," she said.

"It's completely normal to use animal products, so cows' skin, leather - I am wearing leather shoes."

Ms Evans is unsure what to do with her creation and said she was "probably just going to take it home and put it with my [Buddhist] shrine in my room".

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