‘This is not a VÄRDERA cup’ by Krisztina Czika. Photo: Margherita Sold

But today we saw that some designers are using human hair in their goods and our instant response was:

We tend to see human hair as kind of disgusting. If you find a hair in your food at a restaurant you turn your nose up and send it back (and hope they’ll give you a free serve of fries as compensation). Matted hair in the plughole of your shower, or the smell of burning hair? That is the devil’s work right there.

So we were concerned to read today that human hair may be the new it-product, with details of some of the weird and wonderful things that are being produced that incorporate human hair.

“As the world’s population surges, human hair is one of the few natural resources that increase with it. As a plentiful and renewable substitute to waning resources like tortoise shell, horn and tropical woods, an increasing number of designers are exploring its possibilities as a sustainable alternative and viable material for everyday objects,” wrote Elizabeth Clarke on Domain.

At the top of this post you can see a cup designed by Hungarian artist Krisztina Czika. The IKEA-inspired cups are made from wax and human hair. “It is biodegradable, durable, and constantly renews itself at a remarkable rate,” she says.

Which is all very nice, but HOW DOES IT FARE IN THE DISHWASHER, KRISZTINA? Can’t imagine that well.

Blonde human hair weave by Zsofia Kollar.Source:Supplied

The item above is woven blonde hair by Amsterdam-based designer Zsofia Kollar.

“Blonde hair reflects light well, and I discovered that its reflection changed depending on the direction of the weaves,” she explained to Domain.

Human hair isn’t just confined to homewares. You can also donate your hair clippings and have them bundled up into wormlike things that sop up oil spills:

It's hard to mock this, as it's a genuinely worthy cause ... it's better they use your old hair than a penguin lose its life.Source:Supplied

It’s interesting to pause and wonder why we are so grossed out by human hair being used in this manner. After all, we’ve been sleeping with duck down quilts for years, and possibly sat on a chair stuffed with horse hair.

Valerie Curtis, a self-described ‘disgustologist’ and the author of Don’t Look, Don’t Touch, Don’t Eat, told the New York Times that we experience feelings of disgust for various evolutionary reasons, such as avoiding disease and parasites. Put simply, disgust evolved partly to avoid putting bad things in the mouth and making yourself sick.

It’s thought that we find human hair disgusting because traditionally it carried fleas and other critters that could carry disease.

A fact we were reminded of earlier this week when we came across the video of a woman demonstrating how to remove nits from a kids hair with a vacuum device.

We’ll leave it at that.