Apparently a hair weave managed to save a woman from potential injury by gunfire. It’s actually not too surprising. The tensile strength of human hair is not that much different than structural steel of the same thickness. It’s not out of the question that a tight enough weave would actually be pretty effective at stopping a small caliber bullet. It’s just a matter of it being tight enough that the strands can’t easily move out of the way, and this will absorb a lot of the bullet’s energy breaking strands.
7 thoughts on “That Must Be Some Hair Weave”
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Mythbusters had great fun a while back rappelling down the side of the 14 story Art Deco Alameda County Courthouse on:
1. Ropes made of bedsheets.
2. Ropes made of human hair.
3. Ropes made of toilet paper.
And in every case, they worked.
Not too surprising. Without hearing more info, I’d be willing to bet it was a .25 acp. Some years back I used a phone book as a target for one of my mouseguns. Gold dot JHP at point blank range. It went in maybe an inch. Tightly packed fibrous material like that stops them in their tracks. It would be easy enough to imagine enough tightly woven hair to be capable of a similar feat.
From what the story says, it went through the rear window of her car first. I think that could rob it of enough energy that it might also have been a .32, .380, or even a .38 Special.
Sounds like a new market for environmentally-friendly, recycleable, biodegradable body armor to me… Just collect the debris from barbershop floors around the country, wind it all up as tight as you can, and keep going…
locks for love has been making bullet proof wigs for The Childrenâ„¢ with caner for years now…if it saves just one.
Whowouldathunkit?!
Jake–
Same thing that I heard. It my understanding from one of the news reports it was a .22 or some other small caliber, through the rear glass of the car.
I also think I hit a headrest from the news photos but maybe not.