Posts Tagged ‘marine life’

Send Aid to Gulf Oil Spill With Hair Clippings

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Ok, remember our How Your Hair Can Save the World” article from about a year ago? Now is your chance to be a superhero and do your part to save the world.

Eliot Kamenitz / The  Times-Picayune

Eliot Kamenitz / The Times-Picayune

Surely most of you have heard about the massive BP Gulf Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana. Thanks to this massive blunder, state and federal authorities are all taking huge steps to protect the sensitive ecosystems and wildlife in the Gulf from the millions of gallons of crude oil spilling from a sunken rig.

There are several leaks in the sunken rig, and the cleanup efforts have encountered numerous setbacks. Oil could be gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for many more days, or even at worst-case scenario, for many more months. But there is one huge way you can help.

If your beauty school or beauty salon offers haircut services, or you or someone you know works for a dog groomer, SAVE THOSE HAIR CLIPPINGS! The hair clippings can be stuffed into the booms to absorb oil, or woven into hair absorption mats to help soak up the gushing crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

It is fast, cheap and easy to donate hair clippings to the clean up the Gulf Oil Spill – so your hair and your clients’ hair can save the world. Hairstylists, cosmetologists and beauty school students alike can band together to help clean up the BP Gulf Oil Spill now!

How Your Hair Can Save the World

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Saving otters, birds and other marine life is all in a day’s work for many salons and beauty schools across the country. How can your salon or cosmetology school help care for our oceans and the creatures in it? By donating hair clippings to the Master of Trust program, Hair for Oil Spills!

As it turns out, hair is great at collecting oil out of the air and off of surfaces like the water. It’s adsorbent, meaning it clings to the pollutants (whereas absorbent means to soak up the pollutants). Participants in the Hair for Oil Spills program stuff loose, washed hair into nylon stockings. The stockings get made into “booms” which surround and soak up oil spills. Hair mats are also made for emergency oil spills and for oiled bird and mammal cages.

More than 370,000 hair salons in the United States collect about one pound of hair per day. (That’s 135 million pounds of hair per year for those who are keeping track.) The salons sweep up the hair clippings into plastic garbage bags, reuse the large boxes they get from shampoo deliveries and mail the hair.

Help your salon or beauty school help Planet Earth by joining this program. Find out more information and sign up for the Matter of Trust Hair for Oil Spills program here. It’s easy to help save our environment with excess hair. Besides, how can you resist the cute little otter guy?