How to make hair tassels like the pros

I figured until I can get back to the previous thread again with real commitment, I figured I'd explain how they make horse hair tassels.


This is an EXTREMELY easy process, but like all things, you'll do it a few times before you REALLY get the hang of it. You'll need the following-
1.)Horse Hair
2.)Tassel Bells (Again, you can source pastry bag tips.....I think #2 size are identicle to the ones I've had made)
3.)Necklace chain
4.)Copper tubing approx. 1/4 ich size. I just went to home depot and bought the package of bendable tubing thats used for refrigerator repair. It comes in a coil, and its strong enough to hold its shape when cut to a 2 inch piece.


I get my horse hair 22 inch lengths and up. If you have 22 inch bumdle, cut it in half to make 2 X bumdles of 11 inch hair.


1st-Designate a portion of the hair bundle to be used in the tassel. Be generous-You really want those babies to look full!

2nd-Take that portion and divide it into 3 separate piles.

3rd-Take those 3 piles and spread each portion evenly out over the side of a work bench or table. Let me clarify this-You only want about 3 inches of the hair to extend past the edge of the table.

4th-Put paper towel underneath the part thats jutting out over the edge (You'll see why in a minute)

5th-Start with the first portion and coat the ends of the hair that are jutting out (Actually-just coat about 1/2 inch down from the tips of the hair) with gorilla glue. There may be some drippage thus you have paper towels on the floor to catch it. Gorilla glue is nasty stuff!

6th-Let the glue begin to dry-As it does, it will begin to turn white and bubble. Here's the tricky part-At just the right moment, the glue will be plyable enough so you can take a piece of the copper tubing and wrap the hair around the bottom part of the copper tubing. Just keep pinching in a circle (dip your fingers in a little cup of water-water helps activate gorilla glue more). keep pinching in circles making sure that the portion of hair is evenly surrounding the copper tubing.

7th-Let dry completely till the glue is like hard plastic. Repeat step 5 through 6 with the 2nd and 3rd portion of separated hair. For the 2nd portion, wrap around the middle of the copper tube, and the 3rd, wrap around the top part of the copper tube.

***NOTE*** Make sure you do one portion at a time and letting it dry. Clean your fingers after each setting. If you try to do this to quick, you'll start misaligning the layer below, you'll get gook all over the hair, etc. 1 level at a time and let dry. It will take a good 2 hours to finish 2 tassels (A lot of that is dry time!)

8th-You should have a beautiful tassel that looks like an African fly swat at this point. Put a little gorilla glue at the top part of the tassel, and slowly slide the tassel up into the tassel bell. Set it firmly a few times as it dries. By the time it does, it will be rock solid.


9th-Drop your chain through the tubing, and secure underneath with a small o-ring. There you go. Just like the pros-Good luck

Mine is fine and sometimes frizzes, so no go.
fine hair, lets see: has more slip. is softer. Is touchable(that might be a curse in disguise, depending on the person), less weight. Also I've noticed that while fine hair has little mechanic resilience, it withstands chemical damage better than coarse hair. I'm an F, mum's an M. I tested some bleach for her strands(masking the whites, she has some bleach blonde bits). her base colour is darker than mine. I left my sample 2*20 minutes with 12% bleach( 40 vol, i think) and it barely lightened to...medium blonde? def. not platinum, nor white. 30 minutes on my mum, it was WHITE.

I get probably an email a day asking how to do this. For all you DIY'ers , here you go-



This is an EXTREMELY easy process, but like all things, you'll do it a few times before you REALLY get the hang of it. You'll need the following-
1.)Horse Hair
2.)Tassel Bells (Again, you can source pastry bag tips.....I think #2 size are identicle to the ones I've had made)
3.)Necklace chain
4.)Copper tubing approx. 1/4 ich size. I just went to home depot and bought the package of bendable tubing thats used for refrigerator repair. It comes in a coil, and its strong enough to hold its shape when cut to a 2 inch piece.


I get my horse hair 22 inch lengths and up. If you have 22 inch bumdle, cut it in half to make 2 X bumdles of 11 inch hair.


1st-Designate a portion of the hair bundle to be used in the tassel. Be generous-You really want those babies to look full!

2nd-Take that portion and divide it into 3 separate piles.

3rd-Take those 3 piles and spread each portion evenly out over the side of a work bench or table. Let me clarify this-You only want about 3 inches of the hair to extend past the edge of the table.

4th-Put paper towel underneath the part thats jutting out over the edge (You'll see why in a minute)

5th-Start with the first portion and coat the ends of the hair that are jutting out (Actually-just coat about 1/2 inch down from the tips of the hair) with gorilla glue. There may be some drippage thus you have paper towels on the floor to catch it. Gorilla glue is nasty stuff!

6th-Let the glue begin to dry-As it does, it will begin to turn white and bubble. Here's the tricky part-At just the right moment, the glue will be plyable enough so you can take a piece of the copper tubing and wrap the hair around the bottom part of the copper tubing. Just keep pinching in a circle (dip your fingers in a little cup of water-water helps activate gorilla glue more). keep pinching in circles making sure that the portion of hair is evenly surrounding the copper tubing.

7th-Let dry completely till the glue is like hard plastic. Repeat step 5 through 6 with the 2nd and 3rd portion of separated hair. For the 2nd portion, wrap around the middle of the copper tube, and the 3rd, wrap around the top part of the copper tube.

***NOTE*** Make sure you do one portion at a time and letting it dry. Clean your fingers after each setting. If you try to do this to quick, you'll start misaligning the layer below, you'll get gook all over the hair, etc. 1 level at a time and let dry. It will take a good 2 hours to finish 2 tassels (A lot of that is dry time!)

8th-You should have a beautiful tassel that looks like an African fly swat at this point. Put a little gorilla glue at the top part of the tassel, and slowly slide the tassel up into the tassel bell. Set it firmly a few times as it dries. By the time it does, it will be rock solid.


9th-Drop your chain through the tubing, and secure underneath with a small o-ring. Trim the hair to a blunt cut on the bottom so its nice and flat-There you go. Just like the pros-Good luck