Lock of Bowie's Hair Sells for $18K

A wig maker who helped create a fake David Bowie has sold a snippet of the real one at auction. Wendy Farrier was working at the famous Madam Tussauds wax museum in London in 1983 when she cut a lock of the star's hair to make sure she got the hair right for the wax figure's wig, Artnet reports. It sold at a Los Angeles auction of rock memorabilia on Saturday for $18,750, more than four times the $4,000 pre-sale estimate.

"Once hair samples were matched with any figures at Madam Tussauds they were discarded as a matter of course, so there was amusement when I asked to keep one from the selection taken from Bowie," Farrier, who is donating part of the money to help stray dogs in Thailand, wrote in a listing at Heritage Auctions. Rolling Stone reports that the auction also included Prince's custom-built "Yellow Cloud" guitar, which was used in many of his early videos and tours. It sold for $137,500 to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. (Astronomers have named a constellation after Bowie.)