...According to ChatGPT...
...Human hair has been used historically as a reinforcing material to strengthen plaster, similar to the use of animal hair in fibrous plaster. The addition of human hair to plaster can provide increased tensile strength, making the plaster less prone to cracking and more durable over time...
Like animal hair, human hair was mixed with the plaster mixture to create a composite material. The hair helped to distribute stresses and prevent cracks from propagating through the plaster, resulting in a more robust and long-lasting construction material.
Historically, human hair was often collected from various sources, including barbershops, hair salons, and even from individuals. It was then cleaned, sorted, and added to the plaster mix during the construction or repair of buildings and structures.
While the use of human hair in plaster was relatively common in the past, similar to animal hair, modern construction practices have shifted towards using synthetic fibers or other materials to reinforce plaster. This change is due to practical reasons, ethical concerns, and advances in construction technology that offer more efficient and reliable alternatives to traditional hair-reinforced plaster.
As with any historical practice, it is essential to consider the context and time period when examining the use of human hair in plaster. While it might seem unusual by today's standards, it was a practical and resourceful solution in the past...
If you take time to research the process of ‘slip casting’, that’s the process used by Paul Lawson when he made the bust, amongst volumes of information you will find that there are instances of the use of human hair being added to the slip cast mixture as a binding/strengthening agent. This hair could be sourced from numerous locations, you’ll find adverts on Trove. Businesses would buy hair from hairdressers and barbers etc.
The questions would relate to the materials purchased by Paul and whether or not they were bought because they contained human hair. Alternatively, Paul may have sourced some directly himself. I came across the term,’ Fibrous Plaster’ This is the more industrial version of the product I think and it could contain, in days gone by, material such as horse hair, hogs hair, and even dog and cat hair. Human hair is far smoother than animal hair and that is one reason why it would be used rather than hair from an animal.
Just finding that the inclusion of human hair in ‘Pottery Plaster’ occurred, casts (no pun intended) additional and significant doubt about the source of the hair claimed to be from Carl Webb.
In the discussions I had with Paul Lawson, I did not ask the question regarding the possibility of hair in the mixture, at that time it wasn’t top of mind and Carl Webb had not emerged. I did ask whether he had given samples of the hair to Professor Abbot and he replied in the negative.
VIDEO UPDATE
And here courtesy of Steve H, is a 2009 YouTube video featuring Professor Abbott discussing the 'Very Hairy' plaster bust.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150710174426/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIUP-wVw60k
I am not sure whether others here have read April 2023 article in the IEEE magazine, US version. It is the Professor’s account of how the whole process worked. In it, you will read that he admits that Forensic scientists would dispute the methodology which it turns out was based on ‘imputation’ an engineering approach, and not normal forensic procedures which are of course extraordinarily strict. Worth bearing in mind that there was only one hair that the whole identification was based on, just the shaft thereof. That hair would have been destroyed in the DNA analysis process. Here’s the link:https://spectrum.ieee.org/somerton-man
UPDATE
In discussions with John Sanders over on the TBT blog, John has shown that he had posted a few years ago on issues related to the use of salon hair for plaster cast making. Really good solid information that corroborates what has been said here. Here are John's thoughts:
“If anyone ever wondered about the accumulated hair left on the floor and of a salon and thought perhaps it may have been used by fine plaster (bust) casters, they’d be right on the money. Selected floor sweepings are sold off for use in the trade and mixed with coarser fibres or horse hair to line the split-forming cases before creating the actual solid replica of their creation which in the case with Paul Lawson should have been Somerton Man. Just about everyone must know by now, I’ve spoken on the subject often enough, that those few celebrated hairs taken from the completed bust years later by DNA analysts might not have been those of the original mortuary specimen, whether it had been the beach body or a substitute. One reason we can feel sure that the extracted hairs are not from the body be that when Paul spoke of creating the cast, he mentioned using a gel solution to keep the scalp hair from impeding his laying on process”.
Many thanks JS.
That explains what's in the roof cavity of my mum's old house. It was a fiberous placter substance that went across the ceiling joists to keep the plaster ceiling up. No nails were used in those days. No gyprock either. All plasterboard. It must've been the 2nd most common sort of plaster available back in the late 1940s. However did wall rendering plaster also contain fibres? This form of plaster would've been the most common.
ReplyDelete3rd most common might've been the spak filla types of home handy man plaster used to fix holes and scratches. As for plaster to make casts does anyone know if that was specialised plaster or just whatever could be procured from a hardware store? Maybe if parts of the original mould still exist the SAPol can test it to find out?
Is Carl Webb contrived
ReplyDeleteIs it a fabrication, a falsehood
I think that there was a Carl Webb. But there is doubt with good reasons, that the body of whom the bust was made was not Carl Webb and of course neither are the exhumed remains.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't that long ago that the Hood Professor was telling all and sundry that the Somerton Man was related to a US President no less. What an exciting prospect. It can't be too long now before he reveals the link between the Webb family and said President, or can it?
ReplyDeleteAn update and an important one. There is a credible document that describes the differences between male and female hair.
ReplyDeleteOne in particular got my attention. Female hair at the distal end is invariably brown in colour as opposed to the distal end of male hair which is always black.
In the IEEE article written by Professor Abbott, he describes sample hairs as being brown.
That being the case it would appear that these sample hairs plucked from the plaster bust of the Somerton Man were from a female.
Any thoughts?
Here's the link to the document:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9836136/
Is the hair off the floor of a ladies hairdressing salon and got mixed into the plaster?
ReplyDeleteHow did he get Carl Webb a male out of that?
This whole Carl Webb thing is nonsense
It certainly doesn't add up, we should delve into this a little deeper but on the surface it certainly looks odd along with the other issues of mortuary soap, hydrogen peroxide, sodium hypochlorite and of course the embalming fluids.
DeleteIn this case the plucked sample hairs might well have come from a ladies hairdressing salon as you suggest.
Here's the link to the IEEE article, an interesting piece:
:https://spectrum.ieee.org/somerton-man
Interestingly, there has never been any mention of the gender in any of the posts put out by the Professor or his followers.
ReplyDeleteSteve H. As you can see in this post, I did credit you with the video clip. No further comment is necessary.
ReplyDeleteThe 'lost' video Recovered! It is of the 2009 Adelaide University students visit to the SA Police museum has been found complete with the ;Very Hairy' bust of the Somerton Man and you can view it here on the Internet Archive 'Wayback Machine', Well done boss!
ReplyDelete