Over the years, plenty of pieces of Kurt Cobain memorabilia have found themselves on the auction block, including but not limited to his MTV Unplugged cardigan, his Unplugged guitar, and his non-Unplugged (but perhaps stolen) credit card. Now there’s a new piece of Cobain up for sale, and I phrased it that way because it’s a literal piece of the late singer: Later today, a strand of his hair will go up for auction.
Bidding on the six strands of hair will start at 8 p.m. ET through Iconic Auctions, who describes the item:
“Unique presentation on a 8.5″ x 11″ sheet includes six strands of Cobain’s blonde hair, the largest measuring approximately 2.5,” and housed in a small card with plastic overlay 1.75″ x 2.” This one-of-a-kind artifact is entirely fresh-to-market, and accompanied by an impeccable lineage of provenance including 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 lucky friend who trimmed the Nirvana frontman’s iconic blonde locks, was an early confidant, Tessa Osbourne, who cut his hair in 1989 — well prior to his Nevermind breakthrough — whilst on the Bleach Tour.”
The page also includes a note from the hair’s owner, Seattle artist Nicole DePolo, who writes:
Tessa had known Kurt back in England, and they had hung out during the Bleach Tour. 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.”
Check out the auction here.