Music

A lock of David Bowie's hair sold for $18,750

by Jeremy Mersereau

Michael Jackson’s glove, leftover Metallica riffs, a Beatle penis painting… what musical ephemera can’tyou find at an auction? What about the Thin White Duke’s hair?

Apparently, yep: at a charity Heritage Auction event over the weekend, a lock of David Bowie’s hair sold to the highest bidder… who put up $18,750 USD for the privilege of owning a strand from the Starman. The coif-clip in question was taken from Bowie back in 1983 by Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in London, who used it to accurately colour-match the hair on Bowie’s waxy, disturbing, “Famous”-style replica.

Wendy Farrier, the hair-cutter in question (the ‘Wig Mistress’, to use Tussaud’s parlance) has written a letter proving the hair’s validity, which you can read. No diluting the wig with straw here (looking at you, Jimmy John’s Roadside Wax Kingdom near Orillia).

Also sold at the same auction: Prince’s Yellow Cloud guitar, which went to axe-obsessed Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay for a cool $137,500. 2016: the year of beloved musical legends leaving us, just so their possessions can go to line the summer homes of the world’s elite.

[h/t Paper Mag]