HairCycle: Uncovering the complex relationships and values emerging from prototyping circular ecosystems for systemic and transformative change - through hair

This GIGAmap visualises the findings of HairCycle, a one-year pilot project funded through an AHRC Design Exchange Partnership between the University of the Arts London and the London Borough of Newham, delivered as part of the Future Observatory programme hosted by the Design Museum. The project explored how human hair – an undervalued material resource, of which approximately 6.8 million kg ends up in UK landfill annually – could be locally recovered from hairdressers and barbers, and regenerated into building materials, textiles, and fertilisers within a place-based, circular ecosystem.

Developed using the principles of systemic and regenerative design, the GIGAmap synthesises a year of fieldwork, participatory workshops, ethnographic research, and material experimentation into a single visual artefact. It maps the project's geographical context in Newham, its key principles (Regenerative, Local, Bio-based, Circular), the stakeholder network, the flow of hair through collection, processing, and regeneration, and the ecological, social, and economic value generated. It also articulates HairCycle's roadmap from pilot to wider adoption through Scaling Deep, Up, and Out.

The GIGAmap functions both as a research output and as well as a communicative and analytical tool — making the complexity of a place-based circular hair ecosystem legible to diverse audiences, including local authorities, design practitioners, local communities and researchers.