Is the solution on top of our heads to solve the current issues of the fashion and textile industry?

It is no secret, that the textile industry is extremely polluting, while there are more and more initiatives and innovations to make the industry more sustainable, the challenge might seem impossible to solve. People often say the solution is often closer than we think - and that’s what Human Material Loop, a textile innovation company from the Netherlands trying to tell us. 

Human Material Loop develops high-performance textile from unused keratin protein waste within a closed-loop climate positive production. How? A few times a year everybody goes to the hair salon, but how many of you ever wondered what happens to the cut-off hair on the floor at the salon? After all human hair is the same keratin protein fiber as wool, and before Human Material Loop hairdressers swept the hair to their bin and put it out with the rest of their garbage. 

What might seems absurd at first sight, the most sustainable material that we can use is our own waste, specifically our own cut hair. Because growing our own hair, getting a haircut to feel and look good does not degrade any soil, use no pesticides, pollutes no water and nobody gets hurt or exploited in the entire process. 

What can textile developed from hair offer? A 100% biodegradable material with local sourcing and production, which not only cuts off the transport emissions but also boost local economies. A hypoallergenic material by nature, because there is no human on this planet who would be allergic to human hair. A material that is as strong as steel in the same diameter and can be stretched up 1.5 times its original length before breaking. And if you wonder about your privacy, cut-off hair does not contain any nuclear DNA, therefore no individual can be identified, the most you can tell the diet or the vitamin deficiencies of the individual. 

Human Material Loop was founded with a mission to create a true textile revolution and to show that people are not above, but part of the ecosystem and to show that a zero-waste society is actually possible. 

What do you think? Would you wear textiles from human hair?