Hair being donated to soak up oil

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Your hair can help clean up the most recent Gulf of Mexico oil spill. This may sound strange, but a few Terre Haute hair salons are doing this.

For the past several months Bluebird Style Studio in Terre Haute has been collecting cut hair.
Instead of just throwing it away, they send it to Matter of Trust.

Matter of Trust is a North American charity that gathers all the hair donations and binds them together as mats. A hair stylist was inspired in 1989 to invent the hair mat to help clean the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

The grooves in human hair in the nylon mats, soak up oil from spills.

"It's just a simple thing for us to do. We don't have to do much to collect the hair, we just have to keep it separate, in a bag, inside a box, keep out of debris out of it, nothing sharp, nothing sticky," Bluebird Style Studio Owner, Heather Bellew Said.

Human hair isn't the only material needed. Pet fur, waste wool, and nylon stockings are all used for the mats too.

If you or your business is interested in donating, here is a link for Matter of Trust: http://matteroftrust.org/index.html

Bluebird Style Studio, located at 2255 Wabash Ave. in Terre Haute, will also collect your donations. Their phone number is (812) 917-4328.