How can bits of hair from Whitley County aid in the clean up of the giant oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico?
(Talk of the Town photo by Jennifer Zartman Romano) A rainbow of trimmed hair, usually the unwanted byproduct of a trip to the salon, is suddenly a valuable resource to organizations aiding in the cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. Above, Megan Palmer, a stylist at Snippers Salon in Columbia City, sweeps up the leftover hair from her afternoon appointments Tuesday and will prepare them to be donated to an organization that turns the pieces of hair and recycled nylon stockings into mats that separate oil from water, cleaning up oil slicks.
By Jennifer Zartman Romano
Sweeping up the remnants of hair on the floor of her Columbia City salon, business owner Denise Hearld thought nothing of a task she does dozens of times a day, most days of the week.
Like others watching the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico unfold, she felt powerless to do much to stop the movement of a gigantic oil slick from damaging delicate ecosystems.
She found a way to help, however, and it has everything to do with each client who walks in the door and those previously unwanted bits of hair they leave behind.
Hearld, owner of Snippers Salon in Columbia City, learned late last week about a way stylists are helping to reduce the environmental impact and aid in the cleanup -- without leaving their salons.
Hearld's daughter learned about the program and urged her to participate. "She said, 'Mom, you've gotta do that," Hearld said.
Through a San Francisco, California-based environmental project called Matter of Trust, hair salons from across the county are sweeping up the hair from their salon floors and sending them to any one of 12 collection sites across the country. Using the discarded hair and used pantyhose, woven mats are created that can be used to clean up the oil slicks.
Human hair is uniquely helpful in cleaning up the oil because of the hair's makeup. Each strand of hair, when looked at under a microscope, has tiny scales on it that attract oil molecules. As the hair mats are drug across the surface of the water, they pick up the oil. They can be wrung out and used over and over again to separate the oil from the water.
Locally, Hearld is contacting local salons to send all of Whitley County's leftover hair to aid in the effort. She said she's already made a couple of calls and she's looking forward to helping out.
Participation is simple for any salon that wants to participate -- simply sweep up the hair and get it to Hearld. She will then ship it to warehouses in southern states where the hair mats are being manufactured.
"They've been doing this for quite awhile to clean up minor spills," Hearld said. "But it's not widely known that you can do that."
Hearld said hair has been coming into the warehouses from across the country and the location for where to send it has been changing frequently as new space is found.
"It's not like we don't have hair here everyday," she said, laughing at the simplicity of the project. "If something we have can help without hurting the environment, who wouldn't want to do that!"
Salons interested in sending hair along with the shipments sent by Snippers Salon, call Denise Hearld at 248-8350.