Hair care

UNITED STATES: Response teams are working day and night to stop the oil leak that has poured thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. And individuals who want to do their part are donating their hair, which they hope will help to clean up the spill.

Matter of Trust, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, is asking salons, schoolchildren and farmers to send hair. Human as well as animal hair, such as from dog-grooming parlors, is requested. The hair is then woven tightly into hair mats or stuffed into nylon stockings, and tied together to create booms. When the booms or mats are floated on the water, some of the oil sticks to the hair and can be removed from the water.

Professional associations such as the National Cosmetology Association and the Professional Beauty Association are supporting the collection. "We are really happy to have something to do with the hair,"  Jenny Thompson, a hairdresser at Bombshell Beauty Studio in Florida, told the Miami Herald. "It's a great option."

Oil sticks to the hair and can be removed from the water.

Local organizations, such as the Sunshine and Shores Foundation in Florida, are also collecting hair to build booms in response to the oil-spill disaster. The idea of using hair to absorb oil is said to have come from an Alabama hairdresser, Phil McCrory, shortly after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. McCrory patented his idea in 1995, and has founded a company, Ottimat, that produces hair mats.