End of an Era: Leila’s Hair Museum Closes After Nearly 40 Years

Gallery view with cases and multiple historic hair art pieces.

Sad news for the hair world: Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri – a unique institution filled with century-old hair art and mementos – has closed its doors after nearly four decades in operation. Founded by the late Leila Cohoon, a lifelong hairstylist and educator, this was the only museum of its kind in the world, devoted entirely to the art of human hairwork. Cohoon passed away last November at age 92, and her family recently made the difficult decision to shutter the museum, ending an incredible run that began back in 1986. Now, thousands of its treasures are being rehomed to museums across the country, ensuring that Leila’s legacy lives on even as her museum’s doors close.

One of the intricate Victorian-era hair wreaths from Leila’s Hair Museum, with flowers and leaves meticulously woven from human hair. The museum’s walls were lined with dozens of such wreaths crafted from locks of the dead, and its glass cases overflowed with jewelry and watchbands made of human tresses. The collection even boasted famous follicles – strands of hair attributed to past U.S. presidents, Hollywood icons like Marilyn Monroe, and even a relic purported to be from Jesus Christ, showcasing the astonishing scope of this unique archive.

A wreath of human hair encircling a poem about a young girl who died is on display Monday, Oct. 6, 2025, at Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Miss. (AP Photo/Nick Ingram)

Leila Cohoon’s passion for hair art began with a chance discovery in 1956. As a young hairdresser shopping for shoes, she spotted an antique frame filled with hair twisted into floral shapes – a Victorian hair wreath – and couldn’t resist its odd beauty. That first find sparked a lifelong mission. Hair art (or hairwork) was a popular Victorian-era craft: in the mid-1800s, women would coil the hair of departed loved ones into jewelry or weave family members’ curls into memorial wreaths. By the 1940s, though, the practice fell out of favor as photography became the preferred way to remember people. Larger museums largely ignored hairwork as a folk art – perhaps because it was mostly created by women and long considered a sentimental curiosity. Leila set out to save this art form from obscurity. She rescued antique hair pieces from being thrown away, authored a book on the history of hair art, and even taught classes to train a new generation of hair artists. Soon, antique dealers across the country knew to call her anytime they found “anything with hair” – if it had hair, Leila wanted it in her collection! Through dogged determination, she amassed more than 3,000 pieces of hair art, preserving countless personal stories braided into each strand.

Over the years, Leila’s Hair Museum became a veritable time capsule of sentimental hairwork. Some standout pieces included an elaborate wreath containing hair from every woman in a Vermont League of Women Voters chapter in 1865, and a pair of crescent-shaped wreaths made from the shorn hair of two sisters who entered a convent. There were even whimsical oddities – a couple of pieces incorporated bits of taxidermyalongside the hair. The artifacts span centuries: the oldest items dated back to the 18th century, and one mourning pin contained the locks of a 7-year-old girl who died in 1811. Before modern photography, a person’s hair served as a tactile memento – “the only part of that human body that’s still here,” Cohoon once noted, highlighting the almost sacred role these objects played in remembering loved ones. Walking into the museum was like stepping into a Victorian parlour of memories, where every braid and curl told a story about family, love, and loss.

In this March 2018 photo provided by Lindsay Evans, Leila Cohoon poses with Ozzy and Kelly Osbourne at Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Miss. (Lindsay Evans via AP)

The museum’s quirky reputation drew an eclectic mix of visitors and admirers. Celebrities even found their way to this humble building on Noland Road (a former car dealership-turned-museum, nestled between a fast-food joint and a car wash). Famed comedian Phyllis Diller donated a Victorian hair wreath that had been in her family for generations. TV host Mike Rowe featured the museum on an episode of “Somebody’s Gotta Do It,”marveling at the unusual craft. And when heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne dropped by for a visit, Leila slyly snipped a lock of his hair to add to her trove (somewhere in the vaults, a bit of Ozzy’s mane is tucked away!). Over about 30 years open to the public, this offbeat attraction delighted curious tourists, art historians, and hairstylists alike. It even gained enough renown that museum trivia popped up on Jeopardy! questions and in travel guides, solidifying its status as a cultural landmark for the beauty industry.

Now, with Leila gone and the museum closing, the focus turns to preserving and sharing her collection’s legacy. Leila’s granddaughter, Lindsay Evans, has been spearheading the effort to rehome the 3,000+ pieces to appropriate institutions far and wide. In fact, some of the most prestigious museums in the U.S. are receiving selections: New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Washington D.C.’s National Museum of Women in the Arts are among those taking in parts of the collection. The National Museum of Funeral History in Houston sent representatives to carefully select about 30 mourning pieces, eager to use them to educate people about the rituals of death and remembrance. For Lindsay, this process of carefully placing each piece into new hands has been emotionally complex. “Every time I come here, I feel her here. This place is her,” she said of her grandmother’s museum, noting that finding new homes for the hair art has oddly helped her cope with the grief. Knowing that these intimate creations will be seen and appreciated by others brings a measure of comfort. “I want people to see all of this, because that’s what she wanted,” Lindsay explained – her grandmother always intended to share these works with the world. Still, she admits, “when this place is empty it’ll break my heart a little bit”. It’s a bittersweet moment: the collection is safe and will live on, but the beloved home that Leila built for it is coming to an end.

In this photo provided by Lindsay Evans, Evans and her grandmother, Leila Cohoon, hold hair flowers made from Evans’ son’s hair at Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Miss. (Lindsay Evans via AP)

As hair industry professionals and historians here at The Hair Society, we salute the extraordinary dedication and vision that Leila Cohoon brought to our field. Her museum wasn’t just a quirky roadside attraction – it was a treasure trove of our industry’s heritage, shining a light on a chapter of beauty history that might have been forgotten if not for her. The closure of Leila’s Hair Museum is unquestionably a cultural loss. We are losing a one-of-a-kind space where the artistry of hair was celebrated in its most sentimental, human form. Generations of cosmetology students, stylists, and curious visitors walked those halls and learned that even a simple lock of hair can carry profound meaning. It’s always sad to see any part of our industry close its doors, especially one so steeped in history and heart.

Yet we remain hopeful and grateful that Leila’s lifetime of collecting will continue to inspire. By scattering the museum’s contents to respected institutions, even more people around the nation will get to experience these remarkable pieces of hair art up close. In a way, Leila’s collection is achieving a broader reach than ever – from small-town Missouri to the halls of the Met – introducing new audiences to the delicate craft of hairwork and the personal stories it holds. We take comfort in knowing that the legacy of Leila’s Hair Museum will endure, just in a different form.

To all who cherish the history of hairdressing and the creativity of our craft, this is a moment to reflect. Leila Cohoon showed the world that hair – something we work with every day – can be not only a medium of style, but also of art, memory, and connection. Her museum may be closing, but the idea it represented – that our industry’s past is worth preserving – will live on. Thank you, Leila, for weaving our industry’s history together, one strand at a time. We bid farewell to Leila’s Hair Museum with respect and admiration, saddened by its closing but honoring its significance to the culture of hair. The end of an era indeed, but one whose story will not be forgotten.

Sources: Leila’s Hair Museum AP News & press reportsclick2houston.comclick2houston.comclick2houston.comclick2houston.comclick2houston.comclick2houston.comclick2houston.com; SCMP/Tribune News Service scmp.com.