There has to be an easier way...

There are two kinds of bow hair. Black and White. White hair tends to be more refined, can be bleached or not and comes in many grades. Black hair is more coarse generally and is often used for the lower strings. I have rehaired hundreds of bows and have never worked with black hair. But today I was asked to rehair a bass bow with Salt and Pepper hair.

Salt and Pepper is a blend of White and Black hair. It is supposed to be the best of both worlds, strong and resillient hair with the polish of refined hair. So I figured, how hard can it be, I’ll try… The black hair is shorter then the white as it is specifically designed for Bass bows and.

First I measured out the white and the black hair so I got the right amount. I realized that the hair needed to be mixed together, not just a white side and a black side. So I decided to try puting the two in my fingers and just rubbing them together. That didn’t work.

Next I tried pulling small bunches of hair from each in turn. Then I bunched them and tied them, but they were so unevenly pulled that the black hair wouldn’t reach the frog… I discarded the hair on the table in frustration.

I regained my composure and then one hair at a time, I gathered them, 6, 8 hairs at a time and placed them in the tines of a comb. 1 hour and 30 minutes later I had two bunches of salt and pepper hair. And my own hair was more salt and pepper than it had been an hour earlier. I am sure there is a better way, and I would have researched it on YouTube if my fingers weren’t desperately pinching the hairs I was holding.