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Collecting Tail Hair for Horse Hair Jewelry
I usually only use tail hair for my jewelry creations due to its strength and length. Mane hair is generally too short and too thin for long lasting Silberschweif creations. Of course, the exception proves the rule: in special cases, mane hair can be processed, provided it is long enough and strong enough. I need approximately 100 hairs for delicate pieces of 3 mm diameter. For creations with a diameter of about 6 mm, I need about 350 hairs and 600 hairs are required for pieces with a diameter of up to 9 mm. This might seem like an awful lot of hair at first light. When you stop and realize that a typical horse tail contains about 100.000 hairs, those measely little 600 hairs don't really seem like much, do they? So, how do we go about harvesting all those hairs?
Method 1
Each time a horse sheds its summer or winter coat, lots of tail hairs are shed as well. If you are patient enough, you can collect the shed tail hairs and sort them out into bundles using little rubber bands. This takes quite awhile.... It is important that the hairs are sorted so that all of the root ends are at one end of the bundle.
Method 2
If you are in a bit more of a hurry, you can always pull out mini hair bunches much like trimming the horse's mane for a show. Simply grasp a few tail hairs at a time and pull them out, always moving from point to point on the tail to avoid aggravating the horse. Please be sure to sort the hairs with the root ends at one end of the bundles. This method works best when the tail is freshly washed and combed out. It is best to use a shampoo that does not contain silicone or oil.
Method 3
The fastest method also requires a freshly shampooed and combed tail. Grab a small bundle of hairs at the underside of the base of the tail. Pull the shorter hairs away from the bundle so that a thin strand of long hairs remains in the hand. Cut off these long hairs and repeat the procedure until enough hairs have been harvested. It is important that the hairs are harvested throughout the tail and not only on one single area.
Method 4
For those of us who are in a rush and who happen to have horses with awesome long hair, there is also a solution. Washing a mega tail in early December is not an option in some latitudes. Simply grasp a small bundle of hairs on the underside of the tail and cut it off as close to the base as possible. The bundle will contain some long and some shorter hairs. Do this on several different locations under the tail. The main point is to get enough long hairs, which can be judged at the end of the bundle. The total number of long hairs should be about the diameter of a wooden pencil for a medium plait.
No matter how the hairs have been harvested, it is very important that they be bound together with a simple rubber band. Do not braid, twist or knot the hairs, but simply coil the bundle loosely in a zip lock bag and include a piece of paper with the name of the horse and your name. In case hairs from different horses are being sent, please use a separate bag for each horse.
Last, but not least, a simple request: Please only harvest hairs from your own horse or from a horse whose owner has explicitly allowed you to remove tail hair. Even though you may like to surprize someone with a special gift, removing something that does not belong to you in order to return it to its rightful owner in modified form could very well backfire on the gift giver, however well intentioned the gesture may have been. So please, no surprizes. Just let anticipation be the greatest pleasure up to the completion of gift.
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