How many hair stylists does it take to clean up an oil spill?

  On April 20th an explosion on a oil rig named Deep Water Horizon off the coast of Louisiana claimed the lives of 11 people. As someone who, until recently, had a sister working on an oil platform in this area, and whose partner has lost a close family member to a refinery explosion I was deeply saddened by this news. My sadness grew as the story grew. The resulting fire eventually led to the rig sinking, leaving the well they had been drilling more than a mile below the surface to spew 42,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico. At the time I’m writing this blog that is 714,000 gallons of oil. I realized I could be observing the largest man-made environmental disaster in the United States to date.

   The submarine volcano of oil has produced a gigantic oil slick that endangers the entire Gulf coast. One of my earliest memories is sitting on the shore burying my toes in the hot, sugary white sand of Florida’s Pensacola beach while watching my father as he cast his fishing line into the azure waves. My family moved to Washington state while I was still very young, but the Gulf coast made an indelible impression on my mind. I have always hoped to return someday to the beaches where I played in the waves with my brothers. The thought of this amazing environment, including about 40% of our country's wetlands, made me feel angry and helpless. Oddly my profession has offered me the opportunity to lend a helping hand.

   After the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 Phill McCrory, a stylist from Alabama, realized that hair was an abundant material uniquely suited for collecting and containing petroleum spills. Hair is adsorbent (as in "clings to" unlike absorbent which is to "soak up.") and is very efficient at collecting oil out of the air, off surfaces like your skin and out of the water, even petroleum oil. “There are over 300,000 hair salons in the US and each collects about 1 pound of hair a day. Right now, most of that goes into the waste stream, but it should all be made into hairmats." says Phil McCrory of Smartgrow.net, hairmat inventor and hair stylist.

   With the immediate need to clean up such vast amounts of oil, thousands of hair salons, like Envy, are collecting hair to send to the Gulf Coast. There the hair will be used to construct hair booms to contain the oil and protect the shoreline. With the oil leak unabated the need for hair is growing every day. Please encourage your stylist to participate in this endeavor. They can learn more about it at http://www.matteroftrust.org/ .