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Michael Jackson’s Hair And Diamonds Are Forever
Although you can purchase official MJ sunglasses, playing cards, tote bags and scarves on MichaelJacksonMerch.com in addition to an assortment of goodies on eBay, those collectors’ items are nothing compared to the ultimate King of Pop memorabilia item – diamonds made from Jackson’s hair.
No joke. This is especially good news for the guy out there who is facing the toughest decision ever – shell out cash to buy his sweetheart a diamond or get his hands on some top-notch Michael Jackson memorabilia. Two for the price of one! Score!
Before you go pointing a finger at Joe Jackson for trying to further rip off his son’s legacy, the locks of hair didn’t come from the Jackson family but were saved from MJ’s 1984 Pepsi commercial accident.
Photo: AP Photo
Michael Jackson, looks "Dangerous" during the American Bandstand 50th anniversary show taping, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California.
When Jackson’s hair caught on fire during the commercial shoot because of a pyrotechnics explosion gone wrong, executive producer Ralph Cohen rushed to throw his jacket on Jackson’s head to extinguish the flames. After Jackson was taken to the hospital Cohen picked up Jackson’s charred hair that had fallen on the floor and stuck it in his jacket pocket.
Collector John Reznikoff recently purchased the Armani jacket and pocket full of charred hair following Jackson’s death last month.
“The provenance and authenticity of this lock of hair is impeccable, including the highly publicized video showing the original owner of the hair using his Armani jacket to extinguish Jackson’s hair,” Reznikoff said in a statement.
(Well, the lock of hair may be authentic but I’m pretty sure the original owner of the hair was Jackson, not Cohen.)
Reznikoff has teamed up with Chicago-based LifeGem to produce a small number of certified, high quality laboratory diamonds out of a portion of the charred hair.
“LifeGem specializes in creating diamonds from locks of hair, our plan is to give people an opportunity to own a diamond made from Michael Jackson’s DNA,” Dean VandenBiesen, founder of LifeGem, said in a statement. “We are currently evaluating the hair sample to determine how many diamonds can be created. This will be a limited collection and we anticipate great interest.”
Reznikoff worked with LifeGem in 2007 to create diamonds from pieces of Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair.
The collector is keeping a portion of Jackson’s hair to add to his collection of famous tresses, including locks of hair from Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe.