Part of David Bowie’s hair action donated to Soi Dog

Wendy Farrier has submitted the lock of hair for auction by Heritage Auctions, the Beverly Hills–based auction house, who sold it for £13,700. She decided to donate part of it to Soi Dog Foundationin in Phuket.

Farrier, who worked at the tourist attraction in the 1980’s as a wig maker, came face to face with the star in order to take a sample of hair for use by in creating an accurate wig for his wax figure.

“He came over and seemed…a normal guy,” said Farrier, now 55. “There wasn’t any ego there, he was very easy going. I said: ‘I’m sorry, I’ll be very careful, I won’t muck up your style,’ because he had a big quiff at the front. I remember my scissors were shaking as I did it. He was totally calm, he didn’t make a fuss. At that time he had so many different colours — I took about five samples because the back of his head was a different colour to the bleached blond at the front.”

The museum policy dictates that their subjects’ “leftover” hair must be destroyed, but Farrier decided to keep a little clump of it. She framed the hair lock with a photo of the two of them and hung it on her wall. 

For more than 30 years, the small, blond lock was framed with a picture of Farrier and Bowie at Madame Tussauds and, until recently, it had pride of place on the walls of Farrier’s home. “It stayed on my wall when I lived in Surrey. But when I moved to Wales it just stayed packed in a box and never came out.”

A percentage of the proceeds of the auction will be donated to the Soi Dog Foundation, which rescues, treats, shelters and provides new homes for neglected and abused dogs in Thailand, and is fighting to end the dog meat trade in Asia. 

Said Farrier: “I wanted to give something back. I’m not a wealthy lady and Soi Dog does such good work. It will go to helping them to feed the dogs, rehabilitate them, get them off to good homes. I hope people understand the reason why I’m selling it.”