The hair was to be repurposed as industrial felt and thread. SS-WVHA, the main economic arm of the SS, sent out directives to the camps in 1942 to collect women's hair, which was often long enough to be collected and processed into felt. Auschwitz survivor testimony claimed that the hair was placed in the crematoria lofts where it could be dried out. After being searched for hidden jewelry, the hair was sent to various industrial firms such as the Teppichfabrik G. Schoffler AG facility adjacent to Auschwitz. Postwar testimony and captured documentation asserted that the main use of the industrial felt was as water-resistant socks for U-boat crews and stockings for Reichsbahn personnel. Other uses for the felt included rope and mattress filler.

As creepy as it sounds, this use of the victims' bodies was congruent with a larger pattern of the SS-WVHA trying to find ways to make the most economic utility out of the corpses of their victims. The lurid postwar tales of human soap and human skin lampshades had their basis in actual, small-scale experiments to render the corpses into something economically viable. Unlike hair which can readily be used for industrial purposes, rendering human fat into soap was much harder to accomplish. The hair that was not processed and remained in the camps for storage soon became one of the main initial symbols for the Holocaust in the postwar period and is still one of the haunting reminders of this period of history.