INDEPENDENCE — Leila Cohoon, founder of Leila’s Hair Museum, acquired her first hair wreath in Kansas City in 1956 while shopping for Easter shoes.

“It’s been an obsession ever since,” Cohoon said. “My husband says it’s gone beyond an obsession, that there’s no word for it, and I admit it.”

Before entering the shoe store that day 52 years ago, Cohoon passed by an antique shop that had the wreath featured in the window. She couldn’t get it off her mind.

“I remember getting up and running out of the (shoe) store,” Cohoon said. “The poor guy never did know where I went. I’ll bet he had 26 pairs of shoes out because my mind wasn’t on shoes that day.”

She kept wondering if the wreath was made of hair. When she went to buy the piece, the owner sold her the frame, telling her she could take out what was inside.

“Thirty-four dollars it cost me, and there went my Easter shoes,” Cohoon said.

Since acquiring her first piece of hair-based art, Cohoon’s collection has grown exponentially. Her museum now includes more than 400 hair wreaths and more than 2,000 pieces that use hair as a medium, including jewelry, broaches and watch chains.

She acquires most of her pieces through antique dealers, garage and estate sales, and the Internet.

As a hairdresser, the unorthodox use of hair first motivated her to start her collection, but her interest quickly shifted to the family histories behind the objects.

Although she said she does not know the exact origin behind creating art with hair, she has traced its beginnings to the 1500s. A woman from Norway has traced it to the 12th century.

“If you think about it, everybody has hair,” Cohoon said. “When the camera wasn’t invented, what else could you do except take a piece of the person’s hair and do the family history?”

Cohoon is doing her part to continue the art form. She is writing three books about the subject and teaches classes about how to form flowers from hair.

Marlys Fladeland, founder of the Victorian Hairwork Society, met Cohoon in 1997 after starting a Web site about hair jewelry because of the lack of available information. Since then, the two have worked to “get the word out about the art,” Fladeland said.

“I believe there’s something really spiritual about hairwork and the art of that and the meaning behind it,” Fladeland said.

She said if a person was still alive, the use of hair would be a token of love. If that person was deceased, it was used in memory of that person.

“So there’s treasure in hair,” she said.

Fladeland said the efforts of the Victorian Hairwork Society have generated an interest in the art.

“The art has not died,” she said. “It has continued on, and it will continue on through generations now.”

Fladeland saw the museum in 1998 and thought it was a great idea.

Cohoon said that when people first hear about the museum, they don’t know what to expect.

“You have to see it to believe it,” Cohoon said.

Tony Kendall, owner of the hair salon “Body Reflections,” met Cohoon at a hair convention and said Cohoon’s museum is “a hairdresser’s heaven.” It even inspired him to create his own in French Lick, Ind.

“She has a collection of old hair stuff and seeing her museum, my mouth salivated,” Kendall said. “I thought it was just beautiful.”

He said he will always remember what Cohoon has taught him over the years.

“Any traveler would appreciate knowing her and her unique collection because she’s a unique person,” Kendall said.

He also said she has one of the most unique museums around.

“Plus, hair is the common strand that connects us to the angels and to the animals,” Kendall said.