Next year marks 50 years behind the chair for Ahwatukee hairstylist Lillian Herbert and almost as long behind a canvas as she turns her clients’ hair into one-of-a-kind works of art.
Instead of sweeping away and discarding the clippings, she uses them to create what she calls her “Hairstory” – a history of people who profoundly impacted her life.
Herbert was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, and attended the John H. Patterson Cooperative High School in 1976, where she graduated with a cosmetology degree.
Her career as a hair artist realized an idea stemming from a childhood fascination with hair.
“I’ve always been a scribbler. Anything creative and artistic, I’ve always done it, but my first and absolute passion is being a hairstylist,” she said. “Ever since the third grade, I knew I was going to be a hairdresser.”
Though she has not showcased her artwork since moving to Arizona five years ago, her work will be featured next month at Bella Fine Arts, 7137 E. Main Street, Scottsdale.
“After keeping it on my walls at home, I finally decided it’s time to get the art out and let people see it,” said Herbert, who works at Sky High Hair Studio, 4710 E. Warner Road.
Herbert’s portfolio spans about 20 major works, with 15 pieces still in her possession.
Each one, she says, takes from seven to eight months to complete.
She begins by collecting her clients’ locks, hair, tucking them into envelopes, and labeling them with their name, date, and color.
Over time, the envelopes quickly pile up, with a large palette of browns, blacks, reds, grays, and blondes.
“I consider what I do an art form because styling hair deals with colors, lines, shapes, angles – that’s art,” Herbert said. “So I thought many years ago, why not make art with it?”
She said the hair connects her art with her clients and that that connection gives her pieces their depth, as each one evokes memories of the people the hair originated from.
“When I look at my artwork, it just means a whole lot, I mean, these are people’s lives I’ve touched,” she said.
In every piece, Herbert also weaves in strands of her own hair as a personal signature, ensuring she is a part of each work she creates.
Each of Herbert’s pieces holds its own story, but none more personal than “Weave” (2007), a quilt-like work inspired by African mud cloth and Kente textiles. It incorporates hair from her family, including her mother, sister, husband, and son.
Herbert’s mother, after losing her eyesight to glaucoma, was able to run her hands across the textile surface and express her approval.
“Probably the only one I’ll never sell is that one, because my mom loved it,” she said. “The rest, like my husband said, ‘for the right price, they can all go.’”
Lillian Herbert said people who see this piece are often surprised when they realize that the mountains along the bottom actually form the face of an Indian looking at the sun.
(Instagram)
With her piece, “Generation of Light” (2010), Herbert created a tribute to Jeraldyne Blunden, the founder of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. It included hair from Jeraldyne and her husband, her daughter Debbie, Debbie’s husband, and their two kids, as well as Debbie’s brother and his two daughters.
The piece includes a spotlight reflecting light upon dancers, who are made of hair from her grandkids, with Jeraldyne and her husband’s hair in the spotlight. Herbert gave the piece to Blunden-Diggs for her 50th birthday, bringing her daughter Debbie to tears.
Unlike “Weave,” not all of Herbert’s pieces are rooted in family, as some represent causes close to her heart, like the American Cancer Society, for which her piece, “Hairy City” (2008), was auctioned. The work portrayed a nighttime skyline of Dayton, with all the proceeds going towards the Cancer Society.
Herbert’s versatility as an artist is perhaps best seen in “Hair Tangle: A Mind Blowing Decision” (2012), a piece inspired by Dayton funk band Heatwave’s 1977 hit “A Mind Blowing Decision.”
As part of an exhibition, Herbert was asked to choose a Dayton musical group from the 1970s, listen to a song, and create art based on how it made her feel.
“Now that was stepping outside the box,” she said. “That was hard.”
Unlike her other works, “Hair Tangle” is a three-dimensional piece to capture the rhythm and movement of music. The piece was also modeled after zentangle – a meditative style of doodling in intricate, repeating patterns called “tangles.”
Lillian Herbert calls this map of Africa, made entirely with hair, “The Windown to the Soul.”
(Instagram)
The result is one of Herbert’s most colorful and dynamic pieces, filled with zentangle patterns reimagined in hair – spiderwebs, abstract hearts, and pulsating designs that seem to move across the canvas.
The process of creating each piece varies depending on the designs used, with Herbert creating various techniques to achieve the desired look.
For example, in describing how she made “Tangle,” she said:
“I took hair and laid it out on a piece of plastic with glue, let it dry, and then when you peel it off, you have a ribbon of hair. Then I took a hole puncher and made all of those little pink dots.”
With other designs, she uses pins to keep the hair in place and glues it down as she progresses. “For the pink squiggles, I had to move the hair, put a pin in it, move the hair again, and put a pin in it,” Herbert said. “That one was a lot of pins.”
Her most recent piece, “Facing The Sun” (2024), marks another evolution – one shaped by her move to Arizona that features a painted background, unlike her other works.
None of Lillian Herbert’s work is more personal than “Weave,” inspired by African mud cloth and Kente textiles that uses hair from her family.
(Annalee Hull/Staff)
The largest part of this piece comprises mountains along the bottom that resemble the face of an Indian facing towards the sun.
Herbert said most people who see the piece are surprised when their eyes adjust and they suddenly see the image of the Indian.
“I’ve always told people that art should invoke a conversation,” she said. “I want people to look at my art and feel and know how special it is.”
To Herbert, hair is more than material; It is history. Throughout time, hair art was used by people wanting to preserve the memory of a loved one, and consisted of hair jewelry, lockets, paintings, and medallions.
The use of hair as an art medium in the 21st century is quite different, though its sentimentality and uniqueness remain the same.
Herbert said that through the differences and uniqueness of her clients, her art represents love, marriage, tragedy, success, and most importantly, relationships. Her work isn’t simply art projects, but living records of history, stitched together one haircut at a time.
Herbert’s work has attracted collectors, with one client admiring her work for months before finally purchasing it. When Herbert explained that her art is copyrighted and that she is the only person in the world creating it, he returned six months later with a $10,000 offer.
“He told me ‘Even Claude Monet painted water lilies more than once,’” Herbert said. “But that picture right there, that’s it. I won’t do it again.”
Herbert stresses the originality of each of her pieces, and while she would sell her original work for the right price, she more than often sells prints. A majority of her clients are galleries looking to showcase her work in museums.
She is currently accepting new clients, though she now works only on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
She can be reached directly at 937-301-8232 or at Lillianherbert1976@gmail.com. Her work can be found on Instagram (@lillianherbert_2020) and Facebook while she continues to build her website.