How strong is your hair?

Is it strong enough to take the place of horse-hair in string instruments?

To demonstrate the deep conditioning power of Unilever’s Cream Silk Hair Fall Defense conditioner (which purports to strengthen your locks), they gave their advertising agency a brief: ‘What if human hair was so strong, it could do anything?’ The advertising stunt that resulted was a huge hit for its novelty value – the horse hair traditionally used on violin bows was replaced with human hair treated by Unilever's Cream Silk conditioner.

The world’s first human hair quartet was created, staging a one-of-a-kind violin concert played by a popular Filipina violin quartet who put the bespoke bows to the test at one of Manila’s busiest shopping malls. 

The campaign marks a unique departure from traditional hair product ads that rely on tried and familiar visuals of a model tossing, brushing or tugging her luxurious mane to demonstrate the product’s benefits. The ad agency wanted to bring to life the promise of strong hair in an entertaining, engaging manner that hadn’t been seen before.

“We’ve wanted to do something different for the hair category for a long time, something out-of-the-box. Hair Quartet was brilliant, because it was a fresh new take on a simple product demonstration that really leveraged the power of a live performance,” said Sze Tian Poh, Southeast Asia and Australasia Vice President, Hair, at Unilever.

According to a news release, about 600 gathered to watch the "human hair quartet" show as virtuosos provided a tress test that culminated in a 40-song, 4-set, 240-minute concert at a busy shopping mall in Manila. Not a strand was broken! Now that's sweet music to the advertiser

Watch this amazing performance 

If you’re looking to measure the tensile strength of hair or substantiate any hair care product claims then a Texture Analyser will provide the essential tool to deliver objective physical property measurement.

Plenty of people play with their hair, but who knew it could make such sweet music?