Maxine, as she became known, was destined to become dog food unless the scientists saved her. “The farmer said, ‘We’ve found your sheep and, actually, she’s in the dog tucker paddock because the wool is useless’,” says Plowman.

When the scientists mated Maxine with an ordinary merino ram, they found something surprising: her mutation was genetically dominant. She gave birth to Sharon the sheep: a strong, healthy young ewe with silky, straight wool, who researchers are hoping holds vital clues to solving a range of hairy mysteries, from identifying human hair at crime scenes, to designing shinier, softer wool, to uncovering the secret to better hair care products.

Hair growth

Along with producing milk, growing hair is something humans share with all other mammals, including seemingly-distant relations such as echidnas and platypuses, says the wool project leader at AgResearch, Duane Harland. Mammals’ hair comes in a range of textures. A sheep’s wool is much more like ours than, say, the fur of a lab mouse, says Harland. That’s what makes sheep valuable research subjects for studying the structure of human hair (along with the fact that scientists can selectively breed sheep, whereas doing so with humans would be creepy).

Even the basic properties of hair – such as what determines whether it looks straight or curly, or why some people’s is prone to frizz – remain a little mysterious, says Harland. “Of all the biological fibres that exist, for example silk or cotton or other things, hair is one of the most complicated,” he says. “It’s complex enough that we don’t quite understand how things are arranged on a nanometre scale and the way in which the different proteins are combined to define the structure.

“For example, why does some people’s hair frizz up when it’s humid? That’s of a lot of interest to personal care companies because we really don’t quite understand what makes it happen to people. The sheep provide the link,” says Harland.