Her hair
Júlia Vilas
ELISAVA Barcelona
Her Hair is a project that uses hair as a tool to reflect on identity, memory, and the relationship with one's own body. In our society, hair embodies a contradiction: it can provoke disgust while simultaneously inspiring fascination when it remains attached to the body. This contradiction is deeply rooted in social constructs, stigma, gender norms, privilege, and fetishization. Hair acts as a mirror between the public and the private; it is intimate yet exposed, private yet public, personal yet subject to social value and judgment. Through this tension, the project materializes into a jewelry collection developed in collaboration with Tous exploring the symbolism and materiality of hair. The jewelry pieces act as the material outcome of a ritual process composed of three acts: combing, cutting, and transforming. These gestures reveal the ability to intervene in oneself, to recognize a moment as significant, and to preserve it. The ritual highlights an often invisible privilege: having control over one's own bodily narrative and transforming it into matter.