Unicorn hair

Unicorn tail hair
Potion ingredient information
Taken from	Unicorns
Properties	Could bind bandages
Physical characteristics	Silver in colour
Used in	Beautification Potion Potent Exstimulo Potion Wand cores

Firenze: "Harry Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"

Harry Potter: "No. We've only used the horn and tail hair in Potions."

— A very serious question

Unicorn hair was a powerful magical substance with a variety of uses, originating on the body of a unicorn. It could be used as the core of wands and was one of the three supreme core types. It was frequently shed from the creature.

Wandlore

Unicorn hair could be used in wand-making, as wand cores. Wands with these cores produced the most consistent magic, were least subject to fluctuations and blockages, were most difficult to turn to the Dark Arts, and were the most faithful of wands. However, they did not make the most powerful of wands (unless the wand wood compensated) and were prone to melancholy if mishandled. The wandmaker Garrick Ollivander made wands with unicorn hairs.

Known uses

Unicorn tail hairs were also used in potions, though their exact uses and properties were unknown, although the Beautification Potion was known to contain them. This was commented on by Harry Potter during conversation with Firenze in the Forbidden Forest.

Rubeus Hagrid found that unicorn hairs could be used to bind bandages.

A recommended remedy for skin contact with Armadillo Bile Mixture was to wash the affected area with unicorn hair.

Wands with unicorn hair cores

Penny Haywood's wand

Ron Weasley's first wand

Ronald Weasley's second wand

Neville Longbottom's second wand

Draco Malfoy's wand

Remus Lupin's wand

Cedric Diggory's wand

Quirinus Quirrell's wand

Mary Cattermole's wand

Sybill Trelawney's wand

Behind the scenes

• Unicorn hair is worth ten Galleons for each strand, according to Horace Slughorn. However, this may be inaccurate as he was drunk at the time, and a wand (which may contain such a hair) only costs seven. Although, as this seven Galleon price for a wand was established in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and unicorn hairs being ten Galleons was mentioned during Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it is possible that there was an inflation in the price of unicorn hair during the intervening years. It is also possible the price difference between selling unicorn hair as raw material in comparison to an altered material as wand cores, and/or that a single hair may be long enough to be cut in two for use as two wand cores (most wands are 9 to 14 inches long, and obviously a core is always shorter than the whole wand).

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Mentioned only)
• Pottermore
• Wizarding World
• Wonderbook: Book of Potions
• Harry Potter for Kinect (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: The Wand Collection (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

See also

• Unicorn blood
• Unicorn horn
• Wand
• Wand core
• Wandlore