Strands of Kurt Cobain's hair have sold for over $14,000 at auction
Six strands of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's hair, cut on the band's Bleach Tour, have sold for rather a lot of money…
We were incredibly surprised to learn earlier this month that six strands of Kurt Cobain's hair were going up for auction, but now something even more surprising has happened: they've sold for over $14,000. Ooooft.
The peculiar Iconic Auctions item had gone up for a minimum of $2,500, with 14 bidders then ramping up the cost to a total of $14,145.00 (£10,005), with bidding closing on May 15. As well as the six strands, the "one-of-a-kind artefact" comes with "images of Kurt posing with the woman who cut this hair, scissors in hand, and a fantastic shot of the hair actually being cut".
The hairdresser, Tessa Osbourne, cut Kurt's hair during Nirvana's Bleach era in 1989, and then gifted it to Seattle artist Nicole DePolo following the music legend's passing.
Read this: 11 bands and artists who wouldn’t be here without Nirvana
"Tessa had known Kurt back in England, and they had hung out during the Bleach Tour," said Nicole. "Nirvana had broken in England first, and she must have had a sense that Kurt would become a musical force. When it came to Kurt, Tessa was kind of what like Astrid Kirchherr had been to The Beatles – the woman who had given him his iconic haircut. She even had a series of pictures to prove it: a snapshot of her and Kurt with long straggly hair while she held a pair of scissors high, then a shot of the scissors going through about 7” of hair. The rest was history.
"Kurt was known for his bleached blond pageboy, and she’d given him his first one back in October of 1989, just before his image began to circulate throughout the world."