Leila's Hair Museum is a museum in Independence, Missouri that displays examples of hairwork dating back to the 18th century.
Leila's Hair Museum is a museum in Independence, Missouri that displays examples of hairwork dating back to the 18th century.
Hairwork is a form of art that began in the 16th century or earlier, and flourished in the Victorian era. A collection of hair from family, friends, or a gathering such as a wedding, was made into a hair wreath by making flowers of the hair. It was then put into a shadow box frame. Wreaths were also made as memorial pieces using hair from the deceased. Hairwork was used by people wanting to keep a memento of a loved one before the invention of photography. [1] Hairwork also consisted of necklaces, bracelets, rings, lockets, paintings and medallions embellished with strands of hair. [1]
Leila Cohoon (1931-2024) [2] was a retired cosmetology teacher living in Independence, Missouri, who started collecting hair in 1956 and considered it to be her life work. [3] She had a lifelong fascination with hair, and considered it one of the most interesting parts of the human body. [4] [5] In 1990, having begun to run out of space in her home for her hairwork collection, Cohoon opened her hair museum in a small front room in the Independence School of Cosmetology (which she founded in 1960). [5] Later, she moved her hair museum a few blocks from the old location so as to be able to expand. [5] The new location for the museum consists of multiple rooms with walls covered from top to bottom with hairworks. [6] The museum closed down during the COVID-19 pandemic, [7] and reopened in autumn 2023 with the caveat that visitors must schedule an appointment via email. [8] Struggling after its reopening and Cohoon’s death, the museum closed permanently in September 2025. [9] Lindsay Evans, Cohoon's granddaughter, is working to place the collection in other museums across the U.S. [10]
Leila’s Hair Museum has more than 700 wreaths and over 2,000 pieces of jewelry, many of which date back to before the year 1900. [3] Among her artifacts are a framed assemblage of hair from every member of a chapter of the League of Women Voters, and two frames with hair shorn from sisters who both entered a convent. [4] Her oldest exhibit is a brooch dated 1680. [1]
Collecting the hair of famous people is secondary to Cohoon's goal of preserving hair art; that being said, there are also exhibits that include the hair of famous people. [3] Hair from Michael Jackson is in the museum, which garnered the museum a mention in a Jeopardy! question on December 30, 2016. [11] The museum also has hair from Elvis Presley, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, Aaron Burr, Marilyn Monroe, singer Jenny Lind, and abolitionist John Brown. [3]