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Tribune News Service

Hair. Human hair. Hair woven into jewellery, wreaths, keepsakes. Michael Jackson’s hair. Marilyn Monroe’s hair.
Hair as art, hair as spectacle.
It was Leila Cohoon’s world, and she showcased it all at Leila’s Hair Museum, located in an otherwise unremarkable free-standing building on Noland Road in Independence, in the US state of Missouri.
Cohoon died in November at the age of 92, and as of last week, her family has decided to close her surreal attraction – the only museum of its kind in the world, open since 1986.

That is the bad news. The good news is that the four grandchildren to whom she bequeathed the museum have spent much of this year identifying new owners for these one-of-a-kind artefacts.
“It was my grandmother’s greatest wish that people keep seeing the pieces,” says Lindsay Evans, Cohoon’s granddaughter.
“I think she always hoped we’d all just quit our jobs and take over the museum. But we all have full-time jobs. So the next best thing was to rehome these pieces in other collections so people all across the country can see and appreciate them.”
So the collection is not gone. It is scattering.
Some pieces are headed to smaller institutions such as the Vaile Mansion, the Alexander Majors House, the John Wornall House, and the Atkins-Johnson Farm, all in Missouri. Others will soon be on display at major art institutions, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, also in Missouri; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York; and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington.
“I’ve been in talks with over 40 different museums,” Evans says. “Some are taking five or 10 pieces, some are taking as many as 50. And they’ll have a little plaque or display honouring my grandmother, her collection and her passion for the art form. So in that way, even more people will experience the works than if we had kept it all in a small museum in Independence.”

Cohoon’s obsession began on the Country Club Plaza, a large shopping area in Kansas City, Missouri. Already a hairstylist, she went shopping for Easter shoes one spring day in the 1950s and spotted an antique hair wreath in a shop window. She bought the hair wreath and, with it, a fascination that would shape the rest of her life.
Evans is taking that one for herself.
“My grandad always said that was the most expensive piece in the museum because look at what it started,” she says.
Hairwork as a craft flourished in the 18th and 19th centuries, when women braided and stitched strands into bracelets, rings, wreaths and brooches. Some served as family trees, each loop of hair tagged with a name. Others were mourning keepsakes. But they were also tokens of friendship, or love, or just proof of who had once been in a room.
Because it happened in parlours and not salons, and because it was practised primarily by women, hairwork never got much respect. It faded into attics and antique shops.
Cohoon pulled it back out. Soon she and her husband, Don, were hunting down hairwork at every antique shop they passed.

By the mid-1980s, the collection had outgrown her house. Cohoon moved it into her cosmetology school on 23rd Street in Independence, then later into its own storefront on Noland Road. Visitors who might have expected a history of perms and dyes instead discovered 3,000 intricate works of art, built up over generations. Some wreaths held strands from more than a hundred relatives.
Then there was the celebrity wall: locks said to belong to Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon, Ronald Reagan. A brooch contained former US Secretary of State Daniel Webster’s hair. Other reliquaries purported to hold strands from the Virgin Mary and even Jesus himself.
“[My grandmother] always said she thought they were all legit, but I was never so sure,” Evans says.
After Cohoon died, her daughter, Linda Clifford, kept the tours alive by appointment. But that has been winding down in recent months, and the family decided to officially close the museum at the end of September.

Cohoon’s career stretched far beyond collecting. She co-founded the Independence College of Cosmetology, styled contestants at Miss America, and spent decades training stylists, running salons and distributing beauty products across the Midwest.
But the museum was her baby. Travel & Leisure magazine called it one of America’s strangest attractions. Ozzy Osbourne came for a visit. Cohoon welcomed them all into her sanctuary of strands.
“All I know is hair,” she once told The Kansas City Star. “And I know all there is to know.”


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From Michael Jackson’s locks to hair woven into art, the US museum that had it all

Leila Cohoon (centre), founder of Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, in the US state of Missouri, poses with Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne at the museum in March 2018. Photo: AP

Cohoon points at artworks in her collection at the museum in 2014. Photo: TNS

Horse hair and human hair make up these necklaces photographed at the museum in 2014. Photo: TNS

A hair wreath is seen on display at the museum in 2014. It was made by a nine-year-old girl and is surrounded by dyed raw cotton. Photo: TNS

This wedding hair wreath was one of over 600 wreaths in the collection. Photo: TNS

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A still from the video work BJ Cherry Jang 2018.9, (2018) by Sungsil Ryu, which is showing at the exhibition. Photo: Sungsil Ryu

Library 3 (1995-2001), by Kyoung-tack Hong. Photo: Kyoung-tack Hong

The Great Chapbook 3 (2024), by Sang-ho Noh. Photo: Sang-ho Noh

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Opening Blooming from the Centre; Golden Flower of Potential (2025), by Byungjun Kwon, on show at the Seoul Mediacity Biennale “Séance: Technology of Spirit” at the Seoul Museum of Art. Photo: Hong Cheolki/Seoul Museum of Art

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Installation view of the Seoul Mediacity Biennale. Photo: Hong Cheolki/Seoul Museum of Art

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Performers in hanbok put on a show at the National Museum of Korea, part of the wider Welcome Daehakro Festival, which has returned for its ninth edition. Photo: courtesy of Korea Tourism Organisation

A Taekwondo demonstration was held as part of the festival’s outdoor performances. Photo: courtesy of the Korea Tourism Organisation

A girl takes a photo with the mascot of the Welcome Daehakro Festival. Photo: courtesy of the Korea Tourism Organisation

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Judy Chicago’s Feather Room (1966) has been reconstructed for the exhibition “Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s-Now”, running now at the M+ museum in Hong Kong. Photo: Lok Cheng/M+

¡Revuélquese y viva! (1964), by Marta Minujin, at “Dream Rooms: Environments by Women Artists 1950s-Now” at M+. Photo: Lok Cheng/M+

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Spectral Passage (1975), by Aleksandra Kasuba, at the exhibition. Photo: Dan Leung/M+

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Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Leila’s Hair Museum in Missouri might be closing but its intriguing artefacts are heading to institutions across the US, including the Met


Leila’s Hair Museum in Missouri might be closing but its intriguing artefacts are heading to institutions across the US, including the Met.


From Michael Jackson’s locks to hair woven into art, the US museum that had it all

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Leila’s Hair Museum in Missouri might be closing but its intriguing artefacts are heading to institutions across the US, including the Met

Leila’s Hair Museum in Missouri might be closing but its intriguing artefacts are heading to institutions across the US, including the Met