Avanos Hair Museum, Turkey

Avanos is a small provincial town on the bank of the Kızılımak River in Cappadocia in Turkey. It is less touristy than other Turkish towns because of its location. That’s why Avanos is relatively devoid of foreign visitors. If you are tired of crowds strolling with cameras and spoiling your photo backgrounds, here you can feel quite alone and roam around the alleys lined with gently decaying still impressive Greek houses.

Although Avanos is famous for pottery, nowadays it is visited mostly because of the Hair Museum in Turkey. This relatively new tourist attraction appeared in 1979. The story of its foundation is romantic enough to speak about. A dear guest of the local potter cut off a piece of her hair and left if in his pottery shop to remember her by. He adjusted the lock so that his visitors might see it. As a result, tourists and guests enjoyed the story told by the owner. It was so touching that other impressed women decided to leave their tresses in the shop as well. Today the shop walls demonstrate about 16.000 locks of female hair.
Avanos Hair Museum is situated in the cave. Women are welcome to snip off a few strands of hair and attach them to a special card where they can write their contact information. After the ‘ritual’ the card is stuck to the display. No worries if paper and scissors don not belong to your ordinary handbag possessions, they are provided by Avanos Hair Museum with pleasure. Contribute to the collection of the hair museum if you wish. It is a good opportunity to become a reminder to its owner in such an unusual way.
Another good point to participate in this bizarre venture is totally commercial. There is a chance to win a free of charge week-long stay at the connected guest house of Cappadocia. Twice a year, in June and December, the first customer who enters Avanos Hair Museum is asked to choose randomly ten lucky cards from the walls. Afterwards these ten fortunate hair owners are invited to Turkey. Isn’t it wonderful?

Avanos’ history of ceramics and pottery dates back to thousands of years. The Hair Museum of Turkey dates back to almost 40 years. The red clay taken from the river banks is perfect for traditional household pottery as well as industrial uses such as roof tiles and building blocks. Hair grows straight from your head. The world changes, wonder remains. It is up to you whether to take this museum as an odd idea or a really nice intention to unite people from different parts of the world.

Gallery: Avanos Hair Museum, Turkey