What about a hair-on (pony) hide option?

Advanced Leather Solutions has manufactured Wassily strap using hair-on skins when a client has insisted. However, we do not recommend this. There are two significant issues:

• A hair-on hide is not a vegetable tanned leather so it lacks the tensile strength to carry the weight load of a person. To accommodate that, we’ve laminated the hair-on hide to a vegetable tanned leather. This essentially doubles the cost of the project.

• Through use, the hairs tend to be pulled out by the friction of entering or exiting the chair, creating a balding affect. The aesthetic beauty is compromised over time. It might be nice to look at, but impractical to use as intended — That is, to sit on it.