The supremely weird Avanos Hair Museum in Cappadocia, Turkey is the result of one man’s 40-year-long obsession with women’s hair from around the world.
By Raul Dias
Glaring at me with bloodshot eyes, Galip Körükçü makes it very clear that he isn’t too happy with my siesta-busting, mid-afternoon intrusion. I’m at Chez Galip, his famous pottery shop in the town of Avanos, some eight kilometres from Göreme, the historical center of Cappadocia in the heart Turkey. Avanos is well-known for its beautiful pottery, fashioned out of the red, mineral-rich clay that’s dredged from the bed of the nearby Kizilirmak River.
But that’s not what draws me to the modest little pottery shop. It’s what lies beneath, carefully hidden out of sight in its basement that has piqued my interest. The Avanos Hair Museum, a veritable ‘shrine’ dedicated to women’s hair is what the 63-year-old Galip has been painstakingly building up one lock at a time since 1979.
It’s only when I tell him that that’s also the year of my birth, does the Albert Einstein lookalike relent and allow me into his bizarre subterranean passion project. There is no entry fee for the museum, and everyone is welcome, provided they inform him in advance by telephone, he lets me know with a sardonic smile. I’m led down a flight of stone steps into a large cavernous tunnel that is entirely covered—from walls to ceiling—with pinned locks of hair in every length, texture and colour with a slip of paper affixed to each.
In the last 40 years, Galip has managed to collect an astounding 16,000 plus locks of hair that have been voluntarily left behind by women visitors from around the world. A table at the end of the tunnel even has a pair of scissors, duct tape, thumb tacks with a pen and some paper for women to write down their names and addresses on after snipping a few strands of their hair.
Galip tells me that it all started when a French lady who was learning pottery under him left behind a few strands of her hair as a sort of memento before she returned home. Hearing this story, over the years, women have been leaving behind a piece of their hair adding more heft to his rather hairy tale!
But that’s not all, every six months—at the beginning of June and December—the first visitor to the pottery shop is given the job of selecting 10 locks from the museum. These 10 ‘winners’ are then contacted by Galip and invited back to Avanos for an all-expenses paid week-long stay to learn pottery from him, if they so choose.
“So, why aren’t men invited to leave behind their hair?”, I ask him as a parting shot. He turns his stern glare upwards in the direction of my boring old buzzcut. I have my answer.
Hair Apparent!
Another hair museum, called Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri, USA does things a tad differently. Established in 1986 by Leila Cohoon, a retired cosmetology teacher, the museum displays samples of hair art dating back to the 16th century. These range from wearable trinkets like neckpieces and brooches to paintings and medallions all made with strands of human hair. The practise of making art from hair reached its zenith in the Victorian era in England and France when people commissioned such art as a memento of a loved one.
(A differently edited version of this article appeared in the 2nd February 2020 issue of the Hindustan Times, India newspaper's Weekend supplement, on page III. https://www.hindustantimes.com/travel/visit-a-unique-hair-museum-and-leave-a-lock-in-turkey/story-VYEgis94khBMEaYN0LCvKP.html)
By Raul Dias
Glaring at me with bloodshot eyes, Galip Körükçü makes it very clear that he isn’t too happy with my siesta-busting, mid-afternoon intrusion. I’m at Chez Galip, his famous pottery shop in the town of Avanos, some eight kilometres from Göreme, the historical center of Cappadocia in the heart Turkey. Avanos is well-known for its beautiful pottery, fashioned out of the red, mineral-rich clay that’s dredged from the bed of the nearby Kizilirmak River.
But that’s not what draws me to the modest little pottery shop. It’s what lies beneath, carefully hidden out of sight in its basement that has piqued my interest. The Avanos Hair Museum, a veritable ‘shrine’ dedicated to women’s hair is what the 63-year-old Galip has been painstakingly building up one lock at a time since 1979.
It’s only when I tell him that that’s also the year of my birth, does the Albert Einstein lookalike relent and allow me into his bizarre subterranean passion project. There is no entry fee for the museum, and everyone is welcome, provided they inform him in advance by telephone, he lets me know with a sardonic smile. I’m led down a flight of stone steps into a large cavernous tunnel that is entirely covered—from walls to ceiling—with pinned locks of hair in every length, texture and colour with a slip of paper affixed to each.
In the last 40 years, Galip has managed to collect an astounding 16,000 plus locks of hair that have been voluntarily left behind by women visitors from around the world. A table at the end of the tunnel even has a pair of scissors, duct tape, thumb tacks with a pen and some paper for women to write down their names and addresses on after snipping a few strands of their hair.
Galip tells me that it all started when a French lady who was learning pottery under him left behind a few strands of her hair as a sort of memento before she returned home. Hearing this story, over the years, women have been leaving behind a piece of their hair adding more heft to his rather hairy tale!
But that’s not all, every six months—at the beginning of June and December—the first visitor to the pottery shop is given the job of selecting 10 locks from the museum. These 10 ‘winners’ are then contacted by Galip and invited back to Avanos for an all-expenses paid week-long stay to learn pottery from him, if they so choose.
“So, why aren’t men invited to leave behind their hair?”, I ask him as a parting shot. He turns his stern glare upwards in the direction of my boring old buzzcut. I have my answer.
Hair Apparent!
Another hair museum, called Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri, USA does things a tad differently. Established in 1986 by Leila Cohoon, a retired cosmetology teacher, the museum displays samples of hair art dating back to the 16th century. These range from wearable trinkets like neckpieces and brooches to paintings and medallions all made with strands of human hair. The practise of making art from hair reached its zenith in the Victorian era in England and France when people commissioned such art as a memento of a loved one.
(A differently edited version of this article appeared in the 2nd February 2020 issue of the Hindustan Times, India newspaper's Weekend supplement, on page III. https://www.hindustantimes.com/travel/visit-a-unique-hair-museum-and-leave-a-lock-in-turkey/story-VYEgis94khBMEaYN0LCvKP.html)
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