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Eyeglasses Made of Human Hair
Mightee writes "Graduates from Royal College of Art have discovered a way to turn hair cuttings that parlors throw away as waste into sustainable eyewear named Hair Glasses. The idea behind this is to 'Go Green' by stopping the use of Petroleum-based plastic frames and use an easily available, environment friendly and renewable resource."
Unless Elton John is their target market, these things are doomed.
Looks like approximately 5% hair, 95% "plant based bioresin". The artists statement neglects to compare its energy cost to manufacture versus metal or plastic frames.
This is the problem of the difference between marketing and art. The art students, in addition to their technological development, must've also decided to make 'artistic' looking glasses, and hence they look like rejects from 80's fashion shows. If actually manufactured one hopes they would use contemporary designs, put real lenses in them, and then we can see if people are ok with the idea of wearing a stranger's hair on their face all day.
Yucky!
That's what I want to know.
They'd be great if they weren't so ugly
"Excuse me sir/madam...would you like to try these glasses that have been made from another person's hair?"
Where does the dandruff play in all this?
'It's environmentally friendly!' Well... it does nothing to actually contribute to a sustainable human society, and is merely marketing - but the makers of this product can sleep well at night thinking that they're 'encouraging environmental thinking' with their product.
They're just shifting a filler ingredient into a known product, and calling it environmental, while spending about as much (or more) petroleum products as part of the full product lifecycle.
Sort of like most "diet" food makers don't actually make food that will form the meaningful basis of an actual effective weight loss program (eat less, build a more productive metabolism with exercise)... but instead tell themselves they're offering choices that "encourage" healthy eating. All by charging more after shifting fillers into their ingredient list.
I wouldn't mind so much - but meaningless "solutions" like these seem to satisfy so many into forgetting the meaning of the problems they want to solve.
Ryan Fenton
welcome our new hair-harvesting overlords.
If stopping the use of Petroleum-based plastic frames is the goal to making glasses greener, then I've been pioneering this approach for a while... I hate plastic frames, It's been metal ones for me since 8th grade. Plastic frames snap. Metal frames bend and can be bent back.
-=JML=-
The press release from the article claims that these are "100% biodegradable at the end of their lives". Since I would put the average lifespan of a pair of glasses at 5 years (less for perscription, but that's just because perscriptions change, and the expensive part is the lenses), I'm left with questions. Will these start breaking down while they're on my face (it's a pretty ideal environment--light moisture next to the skin, reasonable warm, etc), do they biodegrade if I spray them with some kind of solvent first, or are they biodegradable in the same way that glass is(technically, yes, it will degrade, just not in any practical timespan)?
I'm a bit concerned by the fact that they claim that these frames are "biodegradable when they're no longer useful." Aren't the conditions where something would biodegrade generally: warm, damp, slightly salty... basically, their intended use conditions? Are these going to start melting on me an a hot summer day?
...The idea behind this is to 'Go Green' by stopping the use of Petroleum-based plastic frames...
Just as a quick, back-of-the-envelope estimate, what fraction of the world petroleum usage do you think is used for plastic eyeglass frames? Order of magnitude is fine.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Eyeglass frames have been made from keratin for a long time.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Those are among the ugliest glasses I've ever seen. Though I guess they're no uglier than most plastic frames. Personally, I'll stick with metal.
How much does the hair actually provide support rather than just acting as filler for the plant resin?
And could they make other crap out of this? I think this stuff would look a lot better in a car interior...laptops...cell phones...damn near anything, except perhaps anything that's going to be holding food. Might work, but I don't think people would want to use it.
Whats next, hair shirts?
With this magic resin I can turn cat hair into plastic?
I've got some cat hair for ya
I'm sure I have enough to make a whole kitty.
...OP meant to post this to Boing Boing as "Steampunk Hair Glasses".
I'd like mine made of Polar Bear hair but I'll settle for baby Seal or Arctic Fox.
It comes from oil, which itself is the body of a decayed dinosaur.
Expect soon to see a rash of graves being dug up, with the corpses shaved bald. The outraged victims will rise up, thus starting the Zombie Apocalypse. But at least we get to have some crappy glass frames.
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
"renewable resource"? I'm bald you insensitive clod!
These graduate students are obviously trying to muscle in on the US military's contract for BCGs! They're the only frames I've seen that are ugly enough to give the 'Birth Control Glasses' a run for their money.
Much Madness is divinest Sense --
To a discerning Eye --
Much Sense -- the starkest Madness
. . . but their head will not sustain a business like this. The trend for eyewear is durability (e.g., memory metal) and discreteness (e.g., rimless). These have neither. Perhaps a better use for this material would be disposable flatware. Chew on that for a while.
...are people! :o
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
I'll keep my titanium frames. In nearly 50 years of wearing glasses I've never found anything stronger and lighter than titanium. Eyeglasses have to be dependable for those of us who actually use them to SEE, not just use them as a fashion accessory or political statement.
The plastic content on eyeglass frames represents but a fraction of the petroleum used to go to and from the optometrist. Concentrating on the materials instead of the problem is the basic failing of much of the "Green" movement.
All too often I see folks claiming to be "Green" because they ripped out a perfectly good kitchen counter and replaced with recycled baby wipes or some such. Most of the movement is more of a scavenger hunt gone horribly awry than one that makes a meaningful impact. Most forget that the greenest thing you can do is get a vasectomy before breeding (well, consulting Kevorkian really, but the idea is the same).
These poor fools have their heart in the right place, but constantly show severely flawed math/engineering skills in what they come up with. Often their approach is by far WORSE to the environment than sticking with the status quo. Farmer's Market's are fun, but don't delude yourself that it actually took less petroleum per item to get that stuff to market in the back of an F250 pickup than to long haul trucking it to Safeway.
Oh well...
Brings a whole new meaning to your glasses are on your head.
RI for glass is 1.3-1.4 (unless you look into something exotic, which isn't really what normal people consider traditional glass for eyeglasses).
RI for high index plastic is 1.6. (VHI plastic is 1.72)
15 years ago, plastic lens were thicker, it's not necessarily the case anymore unless you're trying to make very low cost eyeglasses.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Am I the only person who thinks these are creepy as hell?
I was hoping that this was about the depolymerization/repolymerization of keratin. I was dissapointed to see the hair as a mere filler material. I want to build a ship of fingernails so badly...
I think the Nazis beat them to this years ago.
Are way too mainstream.
So they're using waste, great.
But, what are the input energy requirements to gather, collect, ship, process, and produce said eyeglass frames?
I doubt that they are going to beat the efficiencies of industrial-scale bulk material-handling and production. I don't recall any great hue & cry about the horrific environmental consequences of eyeglass-frame production?
In short, this is more "let's go green" wanking that makes people who care *feel* slightly better by paying for a product that ultimately saves/helps/does nothing.
It's the environmentalist equivalent of Catholic indulgences.
Kind of like the Kyoto Protocol.
-Styopa
Depends if you walk or cycle to market with a rucksack, or drive to an out-of-town Safeway in your car. Plus an air-conditioned, overlit, 3-acre supermarket sucks up a lot of power just standing there, whereas a trestle table in a day-lit public street takes barely any.