A bottle filled with Elvis Presley’s hair sold for $16,730 (estimate, $8,000) at a Heritage Auction Galleries sale on August 13. The hair had been collected by his barber, given to a friend, then sold along with a notarized statement of authenticity. We looked up our July 2003 newsletter, which featured a report on “hair sales.” In November 2002, a jar of Elvis’s hair sold for $115,120. In April 2003, another bottle of Elvis’s hair went for $33,657. But hair-collecting isn’t limited to Elvis. Mary Surratt was hanged as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination. Eight strands of her hair sold in 1998 for $1,150, or about $145 a strand. At the same auction, three strands of Queen Victoria’s hair auctioned for $500, or about $165 a strand. And a single hair from the Red Baron, the German flying ace, sold for $250. That means the average price for a strand of famous hair is about $186. So if there are more than 90 strands of hair in the latest bottle of Presley hair, the buyer got a bargain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo source: Heritage Auction Galleries