Trendy Victorian-Era Jewelry Was Made From Hair
No one knew how to mourn like the Victorians, who weaved wreaths and jewelry from the hair of dead relatives.
Sylvia Plath wrote that “Dying is an art.” For Queen Victoria, the real art was in mourning. After her husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861, she publicly grieved him until her own death 40 years later. Often, Victoria wore a locket of Albert’s hair around her neck.
Queen Victoria was the monarch of mourning, a celebrity who influenced how grieving women dressed and behaved in Europe and the United States. But for many people in Victorian times, the amount of hair involved in remembering loved ones went far beyond a little lock in a necklace.
In the U.S., a lot of women made elaborate wreaths of hair and wire, often with floral designs. Wreaths made from the hair of one
