Kurt Stenn > Quotes

“Today, some farms actually collect fleece without using any shears at all by injecting a protein growth factor into the sheep’s skin. This factor causes the hair to fracture in the deep follicle, allowing the fleece to peel off without scissors or clippers—a very high-tech approach.”
― Kurt Stenn, Hair: A Human History

“Perhaps inspired by Victoria, 18th-century American women treasured the spiritual properties of hair. To them, clipped hair was used to convey messages of friendship, love, mourning, and family bonds.”
― Kurt Stenn, Hair: A Human History

“Visionaries predict the haircutting experience will be more mechanical in the future. Consider that there is already on the market a device called Robocut that is designed for self-delivered haircuts. It trims hair without a traditional comb or scissors. The instrument consists of a fan that draws hair into a tube. At the end of the tube is a moving blade that cuts the trailing hair. Currently, the device is handheld and hand-operated. Robocut inventor Alfred Natrasevschi envisions that the device can and will be adapted to full robot-operated hair trimming in the future.”
― Kurt Stenn, Hair: A Human History

“In a somewhat different form, noblewomen of 14th- to 16th-century Europe and England shaved or plucked their frontal scalp in order to create a prominent forehead: Elizabeth I, the great virgin queen, appears so in extant portraits. Widespread use of this style among aristocratic women in court led to its reference outside of court as “high brow.”
― Kurt Stenn, Hair: A Human History