Indiana salons collecting hair for oil spill cleanup

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -  Indiana hair salons are collecting
clippings from clients and their pets in an effort to help clean up
oil that has spewed into the Gulf of Mexico since a BP pipeline
exploded last month.
Salon employees in Mishawaka, Bloomington and Fort Wayne say
they were inspired to help by news coverage of the spill and a
YouTube clip of San Francisco-based environmental charity Matter of
Trust, which shows how hair can be woven into mats or stuffed into
pantyhose to create booms.
"Your hair attracts oil. That's why it gets dirty," said Erika
Rogers, creative supervisor and director of marketing at Hair Arts
Academy in Bloomington. "It collects oil, so it can be used in the
oil spill in the Gulf."
Matter of Trust has been collecting hair for about a decade to
create booms and mats made of hair to deal with oil spills. Donated
hair must be clean and can't contain any garbage.
Kim Vergon, store manager at Sport Clips Haircuts in Mishawaka,
said her salon collected nearly four pounds of hair in less than
three days and will continue to do so.
"Rather than throw it in the trash, we will have a separate bag
we will collect it in every day," Vergon said.
Sport Clips Haircuts owner Mark Witbeck said he initially
thought the idea was a hoax until he saw the Matter of Trust clip
on YouTube.
"It looked like a shoestring operation," he said. "These guys
are doing it because they want to -- not because they are making a
living at it."
Melanie Graves, who owns a Bloomington hair salon, said she
thought of Matter of Trust's work after brushing her dog and
accumulating a giant pile of hair.
"I said, 'Bingo, I'm doing it,"' she said.
She also owns a dog grooming facility and plans to collect hair
from that site as well.
"You can accumulate so much more from dogs when you buzz them
off in the summers," Graves said.
But Bob Wiard, co-owner of Joy's Poodle Grooming in Fort Wayne,
questions whether the large garbage bag full of animal fur his
business generates every day or two would be useful.
"It would be all mixed with fleas and dirt," said Wiard, who
throws clippings in the trash.
"If they want it, I'd be tickled pink for them to take it," he
said of Matter of Trust.
Jessica Schoolcraft, a student at Empire Beauty School in
Indianapolis, said she decided to get her hair cut after she
learned the school would send it to Matter of Trust, which it had
worked with in the past.
"I'm very passionate about the environment and the green
movement and helping in any way I can," she said.
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On the Net: www.matteroftrust.org