Adhesion: elastocapillary coalescence in wet hair

We investigated why wet hair clumps into bundles by dunking a model brush of parallel elastic lamellae into a perfectly wetting liquid. As the brush is withdrawn, pairs of bundles aggregate successively, forming complex hierarchical patterns that depend on a balance between capillary forces and the elasticity of the lamellae. This capillary-driven self-assembly of flexible structures, which occurs in the tarsi of insects and in biomimetic adhesives but which can also damage micro-electromechanical structures or carbon nanotube 'carpets', represents a new type of coalescence process.