People love to braid their hair and make inventive hair wraps, which is why I’m loving this video tutorial on creating an Arduino wrap. Barb fast forwards her way through soldering here, but basically she creates strands of LED sequins wired to snaps. The snaps connect to more wires leading to a small Arduino. She is using a QDuino Mini microcontroller, because it has an on/off switch and mounts nicely into a large barrette. You could also consider our Trinket or GEMMA microcontroller. In fact, it would be interesting to mount the round GEMMA with a ponytail holder and try making a felt pocket to dangle a tiny LiPoly battery as well.
While this is an example of decoration, hair is also being used as a means of triggering events. Katia Vega has created extensions that have metalized hair surrounded by non-conductive hair. So, certain movements of the lock can produce different reactions, as it is connected by bluetooth to a phone. Imagine dialing your favorite friend, just touching your hair. It’s just another move in the marriage of fashion and function. If you want to get started with a more simple form of hair ornament, try making this Jewel Hair Stick. It uses a cool cluster of NeoPixels called a “Jewel” to make the Japanese inspired flower light patterns. Have fun exploring electronics as fashion accessories, and you never know, perhaps one day you’ll be the one inventing a new user interface.
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!