Donating hair to help with the oil spill

Solumina · 05-18-2010, 01:38 PM

Apparently human hair does a pretty good job of soaking up oil so some salon's are donating hair to help minimize the damage being done by the BP oil spill. I know that BUBBLES, Hair Cuttery, Salon Cielo, and ColorWorks (as they are all owned by the same company) are donating all of their hair clippings but I don't know about any others. I was just going to post this in the thread about nothing but I figured this way people could add any other salons that are doing it as well. I know it isn't much but if you are going to get your hair cut anyway then you may as well let the clippings do some good.

triggerhappi26 · 05-18-2010, 01:56 PM

well that's interesting

honeythorn · 05-18-2010, 02:18 PM

I doubt they will get enough hair to really make any dent in the spill but it's a nice thought.

Since it's on the surface can't they get/build some variety of massive aquatic hoover to at least vacuum the worst of the oil off? All they seem to be doing is piling up sandbags or something. Doesn't seem too effective from what I've been seeing.

Solumina · 05-18-2010, 02:23 PM

I don't really think much of anything is effective enough, there is just too much oil still being released for them to contain, let alone attempt to clean up.

Oh and the hair essentially works by being put into long tubes of nylon and that kind of floats one the surface both absorbing the oil and somewhat containing it (much like what they are trying to do with the sandbags, just floating and more absorbent).

Saya · 05-18-2010, 03:12 PM

Yeah from what I understand there really isn't anything they can do except contain the damage thats done, and soak it up as best as we can.

Sadly none of the salons here are doing this, that I've been able to find. Dunno if I have enough hair either >.> Must consume more seaweed!

honeythorn · 05-18-2010, 03:15 PM

Aquatic Vacuum ! It must be built goddamnnit!!

Saya · 05-18-2010, 03:18 PM

huh, guess I should google things before posting, not after. The vacuum exists!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...n6481126.shtml

honeythorn · 05-18-2010, 03:28 PM

Yes but they need another one to hoover the existing surface oil off the water , the worst of it anyway, then they could mop up the remainder in the usual way. It'd make things a bit easier if there is such a thing .

Raptor · 05-19-2010, 02:20 PM

I wondered if anyone did something with that hair idea, it was on a gadget show or similar about eight years ago. I can't really see enough hair getting there though.

They're using oil dispersant chemicals so apparently the oil isn't all coming to the surface (where the hair would float) anyway.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...l-flow-stemmed

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...atestheadlines

Ben Lahnger · 05-23-2010, 10:18 AM

I think this is worth looking at:

Watch Bill Nye (The Science Guy) Evaluate Citizens' Oil Spill Solutions

His final note about the complexity of the problem and the abilities of the engineers involved bears noting as well.

Sometimes I think people want to think they can do something directly to solve a problem, when they really can't. In this case, the idea of collecting up human hair to soak up the oil spill is a bit like bringing a squirt gun to a house fire.

Extraordinary · 06-09-2010, 04:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by triggerhappi26

well that's interesting

No it's not.

CptSternn · 06-09-2010, 04:17 AM

CBS news has been answering viewer comments posted on their website all week. One was about hair and why wasn't the 'hair booms' being deployed. Turns out hair soaks up oil very well, but then unlike normal boom sinks and is hard to recover, which is why they are not using it except on beaches and even then in moderation.

angelfae · 06-12-2010, 07:15 AM

Yes, that is exactly what our local news has been reporting. A good bit of our coastline (Louisiana) is actually marshes, not exactly beaches. Beaches can always be cleaned up, but the marshes, not so much. We will lose more coastline (because of the spill) than we lost for hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Gustav combined.

It makes me sad. We have been planning a family vacation and we have been planning our route with a road atlas. My son asked while pointing to the Gulf of Mexico, "Is there still oil in the water, Mommy?" How do you even explain to a 3 year old that we wrecked it, and there really isn't an end in sight?