Turn your hair into a motion-reactive light show with these colorful LED Bubble Hair Extensions from Erin St Blaine.
This wearable project combines lightweight LED seed pixels with bright bubble-braid hair extensions to create glowing cyberpunk-style hair that reacts when you move. An LIS3DH accelerometer senses a shake of your head and kicks the animations into high gear, transforming a gentle falling-rain effect into a dramatic storm complete with flashes of lightning.
The LEDs are controlled with CircuitPython, so it’s easy to customize the colors, animation speed, and motion sensitivity to create your own look. It’s a fun project for festivals, costumes, cosplay, performances, or anywhere your hair could use a little more magic.
From the Guide
Make glowing LED bubble hair that reacts when you move your head!In this project, six strands of seed pixels are built into a hair extension and controlled by an Adafruit RP2040 Prop-Maker Feather. The LEDs show a soft color gradient during normal wear, then the onboard accelerometer detects a head shake and triggers animated rain effects.
A gentle shake creates staggered glowing droplets that fall down individual strands. A stronger shake creates a lightning flash followed by a faster, denser rainstorm.
This is a fun project for festivals, costumes, cosplay, dance performances, or anyone who wants a little weather system in their hair. You’ll need to install some software, and there is a bit of tricky soldering involved — this is not a beginner project because of that, but it is very accessible to anyone who has some soldering experience.
Learn how to build your own LED Bubble Hair Extensions with Motion Controlled Effects on the Adafruit Learning System:
https://learn.adafruit.com/led-bubble-hair-extensions-with-motion-controlled-effects/
### Adafruit Products
– Adafruit NeoPixel 2020 RGB LED Seed Pixels provide the colorful, flexible lighting effects woven into the hair accessory.
– Adafruit Prop-Maker FeatherWing supplies the motion-responsive prop-control hardware used to trigger animations from head movement.
Read more at LED Bubble Hair Extensions with Motion Controlled Effects