Help Clean Up the Gulf Coast Oil Spill by Donating Hair

Want to help clean up the Gulf Coast oil spill, but don't live in the area? Your hair and your pets' fur can help to clean up oil and stop it from spreading. Hair is woven into hair mats, which can soak up a quart of oil per pound of hair in one minute. Better yet, the mats can be wrung out and reused many times. Donated hair or fur may also be stuffed inside recycled nylon stockings to make sausage shaped hair booms, which can act as an oil-absorbent barrier to stop oil spills from spreading and protect fragile ecosystems.

How Individuals Can Donate Hair or Fur to Clean the Gulf

You'll need to sign up for Excess Access, a donor database program administered by Matter of Trust, in order to find out where to send donated hair or fur. Once you have registered for Excess Access, you'll be able to see a list of addresses where hair booms are being made at parties called "Boom-B-Qs," which move around the Gulf Coast depending on the direction of oil flow at any given time. Donations can be sent to these addresses.

If you want to donate some of your own hair, Matter of Trust asks that you contact your hair salon and request that they collect a day's worth of hair clippings and send them to the address where donations are currently needed. Bulk donations are necessary so that the process of boom-stuffing is as efficient as possible. Your stylist will need to sweep debris-free hair clippings (no other garbage, like gum or wrappers) into a box lined with a plastic bag, then send the whole box to the current donation address.

If you're a pet owner and can collect a box full of hair by grooming your dogs, cats and horses, groom away! Or, take your pets to a grooming salon and ask the groomer to collect the day's clippings to help clean up oil. Pet hair is somewhat less oil-absorbent than human hair, so it will be mixed with human hair in order to extend the human hair supply as much as possible. Feathers are accepted, too!

Mark any boxes sent to Matter of Trust as: DEBRIS FREE HAIR/FUR (depending on which of the two you're sending). Shampooed human hair is preferred; pet hair doesn't need to be freshly shampooed, but should be free of dirt and debris.

Organizing a Hair Drive to Soak Up the Oil Spill

If you're moved to go the extra mile, consider organizing a hair drive at your local salon, school, barbershop or grooming salon. Matter of Trust offers a free full-color flyer with information about hair mats and booms, which you can print out and hand around along with information about your hair drive. Other handouts and an oil spill fact sheet are available here.

Tips for organizing a hair drive:

* Time is of the essence in getting the Gulf Coast Oil Spill under control. Try to schedule your drive as soon as possible.
* If your drive will be at a school, make sure consent forms are signed by all parents before children's hair is cut. Ask a local stylist to volunteer to cut hair. Collect hair in one or more large bags, place the bags in boxes and send the boxes to the address you got through Excess Access.
* Get the word out for your hair drive by using social media. Invite your Facebook friends, Tweet about it, use Evite to invite every local person in your email address book... the works!
* Send a press release to local news media. They might announce your event on TV or radio, or write an article about it.
* Post flyers around town.
* Get some older kids or teenage volunteers to stand outside with signs and wave drivers toward the salon or grooming shop hosting your hair drive. Make sure they know to stay out of traffic and never to shout at drivers or throw anything at cars!
* At the end of the drive, weigh your total hair donations and send thank-you cards to anyone who helped with the event, letting them know how much hair they raised to clean up the Gulf Coast oil spill.