...According to ChatGPT...
...Human hair has been used historically as a reinforcing material to strengthen plaster, similar to the use of animal hair in fibrous plaster. The addition of human hair to plaster can provide increased tensile strength, making the plaster less prone to cracking and more durable over time...
Like animal hair, human hair was mixed with the plaster mixture to create a composite material. The hair helped to distribute stresses and prevent cracks from propagating through the plaster, resulting in a more robust and long-lasting construction material.
Historically, human hair was often collected from various sources, including barbershops, hair salons, and even from individuals. It was then cleaned, sorted, and added to the plaster mix during the construction or repair of buildings and structures.
While the use of human hair in plaster was relatively common in the past, similar to animal hair, modern construction practices have shifted towards using synthetic fibers or other materials to reinforce plaster. This change is due to practical reasons, ethical concerns, and advances in construction technology that offer more efficient and reliable alternatives to traditional hair-reinforced plaster.
As with any historical practice, it is essential to consider the context and time period when examining the use of human hair in plaster. While it might seem unusual by today's standards, it was a practical and resourceful solution in the past...
If you take time to research the process of ‘slip casting’, that’s the process used by Paul Lawson when he made the bust, amongst volumes of information you will find that there are instances of the use of human hair being added to the slip cast mixture as a binding/strengthening agent. This hair could be sourced from numerous locations, you’ll find adverts on Trove. Businesses would buy hair from hairdressers and barbers etc.
The questions would relate to the materials purchased by Paul and whether or not they were bought because they contained human hair. Alternatively, Paul may have sourced some directly himself. I came across the term,’ Fibrous Plaster’ This is the more industrial version of the product I think and it could contain, in days gone by, material such as horse hair, hogs hair, and even dog and cat hair. Human hair is far smoother than animal hair and that is one reason why it would be used rather than hair from an animal.
Just finding that the inclusion of human hair in ‘Pottery Plaster’ occurred, casts (no pun intended) additional and significant doubt about the source of the hair claimed to be from Carl Webb.
In the discussions I had with Paul Lawson, I did not ask the question regarding the possibility of hair in the mixture, at that time it wasn’t top of mind and Carl Webb had not emerged. I did ask whether he had given samples of the hair to Professor Abbot and he replied in the negative.
Not sure whether others here have read April 2023 article in the IEEE magazine, US version. It is the Professor’s account of how the whole process worked. In it, you will read that he admits that Forensic scientists would dispute the methodology which it turns out was based on ‘imputation’ an engineering approach, and not normal forensic procedures which are of course extraordinarily strict. Worth bearing in mind that there was only one hair that the whole identification was based on, just the shaft thereof. That hair would have been destroyed in the DNA analysis process. Here’s the link:https://spectrum.ieee.org/somerton-man