One man’s hairy hobby

John Reznikoff has a lot of famous people’s hair, says Jerry Guo in The New York Times. As the head of a Connecticut-based antiquities firm, he does $10 million worth of annual business in stamps, autographs, and other pieces of Americana. He also buys and sells hair from dead celebrities and historical figures; his collection includes locks from the heads of Elvis Presley, Napoleon Bonaparte, John F. Kennedy, Charles I of England, John Wilkes Booth, and Abraham Lincoln, among others. “Here’s John Dillinger’s,” he says, displaying a small tuft. “Oh, I forgot. I just got Eva Braun’s.” Reznikoff’s collection got started when, for $100,000, he bought the hair collection of Margaretta Pierrepont, the wife of Ulysses S. Grant’s attorney general. It was, Reznikoff says, “the world’s greatest collection of hair. But nobody knew about it.” Reznikoff usually mounts his hair in a frame, along with a photograph of its former bearer. “Nobody likes just a clump of hair,” he explains. In 2005, his hobby got him into trouble when he paid Neil Armstrong’s barber $3,000 for a lock of his hair. The notoriously private ex-astronaut threatened to sue. “I don’t do living celebrities anymore,” Reznikoff says. “That has the connotations of a stalker running around with scissors, and that’s not me.” Nor does Reznikoff generally like to draw attention to his collection. “I’m concerned clients might not take me seriously if they see me selling a lock of Charles Dickens’ hair,” he says. “I’m thinking about getting into wine.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up