This research animation, titled “It’s Only Hair”, was commissioned by Professor Emma Tarlo, an anthropologist at Goldsmiths, University of London. It draws its narrative directly from her research into the social and emotional significance of hair, telling personal stories that explore the often unspoken impact of hair loss.

The film premiered at Tarlo’s 2018 exhibition Hair! Human Stories in Battersea, alongside ethnographic photography, hair-related artefacts and contemporary artworks made from human hair. Her wider research on the subject produced the book Entanglement: The Secret Lives of Hair (Oneworld, 2016), which won the 2017 Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing, so this was rigorous, award-recognised scholarship to draw a story from.

The animation went on to reach far wider audiences. It was included in the major touring exhibition Hair: Untold Stories, which opened at the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London (October 2021 to June 2022) before travelling to further UK venues including Weston Park in Sheffield and Tullie House in Carlisle. 

Hair carries an enormous amount of personal and cultural weight, and losing it can be devastating in ways people are rarely confifdent to talk about. The animation works by sharing real human stories rather than reciting facts, which is what lets it build empathy and open up a stigmatised experience. This kind of story-led research dissemination is the heart of my animation work with academics and researchers.

I’m also proud that the film was cited as evidence in Goldsmiths’ submission to the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), the UK’s national assessment of university research, recognised among the outputs demonstrating the research’s public impact in combatting social stigma. It’s rare and rewarding for an animation to be put forward as part of how a university evidences the real-world reach of its research.

If you’re a researcher or organisation working on identity, the body, health or any deeply personal subject, and you’d like to turn your research into animation, I’d love to hear from you. Get in touch.