The Museum of Hair
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Albert Einstein, Troy Polamalu, Gwen Stefani and Donald Trump would love it. Those with chaetophobia (a fear of hair) would consider it hell. Our readers inclined towards Spot Cool Stuff’s odd travel attractions would find it so bad that it’s good.
It’s the Museum of Hair in Avanos, Turkey.
Off of the top of our heads, we can’t think of a more creepy museum. Especially one in a place that’s otherwise so “normal.”
The town of Avanos, in the wonderful if tourist-infested region of Cappadocia, is best known for it’s pottery. Indeed, it was a local potter, Chez Gallip, who grew the hair museum. Some thirty years ago a “lady friend” of Gallip’s had to move away from Avanos. She left Gallip a lock of her hair to remember her by.
That’s a little unusual but not THAT strange.
Gallip put the hair piece in a cave under his pottery shop to keep it well preserved. Before long other women were given Gallip mops of their hair to put down in the cave.
Okay, now this is getting creepy.
Over the next three decades the hair samples kept piling up such that today the cave contains a tangled mess of hair locks from over 16,000 women! The curls cover the wall and flow out of stacks of clay pots.
Barf.
Though referred to as a “museum,” the Avanos Museum of Hair is less a institution of knowledge dissemination and more a dark creepy cave that happens to have lots of hair hanging from the walls. Admission is free, though it is polite to at least look around Gallip’s store while there. Women are welcome to add to the cave’s bewhiskered collection by adding a ringlet of their own hair along with a card listing their name and home town.
Amazingly, this is not the only museum in the world that Rogaine should consider sponsoring. There’s also Leila’s Hair Museum in Missouri, USA. To our knowledge there is not a Museum of Dandruff.
Where to stay: Cappadocia has a wonderful collection of cave hotels, from budget to luxury.
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Photos of The Museum of Hair
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I have never heard of a museum as quite as interesting and distinctive as this one! While i was reading this i wondered to myself: at one point did this become a ‘museum’, after the first 10,000 locks of hair? 11,000? It is quite a spectacle, but it seems to be these off-beat and quirky types of places that people love visiting and contributing too. Just like in many places, there are ‘gum walls’, yes disgusting, but people feel the urge to contribute and marvel at it. I can understand where some people would think of this hair museum as strange and kind of creepy, but it’s unique-points are sky-high!
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