Inspiring material...

 

Hair-like coating made on varied substrates by a simple mass-process: epoxy, a solvent, an AC field. The polymer is self-organized in abundent fibres, like 1µm diameter and 500µm length:

http://www.anl.gov/articles/good-hair-day-new-technique-grows-tiny-hairy-materials-microscale-0

 

The paper by Argonne's National Laboratory's researchers cites catalysts, batteries, photovoltaic cells, sensors...

 

I'm confident more uses will be found. I imagine an anechoid coating for wavelengths 2...1000µm, an ion generator, an avalanche particle detector, maybe an electron source in vacuum as 1µm diameter will improve, a photocathode aided by resonance for improved sensitivity or current density.

 

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

I recall several years ago an interest in using natural hair to attract and remove oil from the surface of water bodies, as in oil industry accidents like BP had in the gulf at that time. As I remember the natural hair worked well but lacked a real large scale solution that didn't involve massive human involvement for collecting, transporting, and possessing the raw material into usable containment and removal devices.

 

To create hair like structures directly into usable products in industrial quantities would probably solve this.