Saturday, July 14, 2012

What to Do With That Hair

No, I'm not talking about hair styles. At least not exactly.

Yesterday I got a haircut and, as usual when seeing the pile on the floor for the hairdresser to sweep up, I thought, 'What a waste!'

Of course when someone with long hair gets it cut short they can donate it to be made into wigs for cancer patients and others with medical conditions that make them loose their own. Locks of Love makes wigs for children and Pantene makes them for adults. (A while back when I went from long to short hair I donated mine to Pantene.)

But what about all those short pieces of hair that beauty and barber shops must deal with every day?

I guess they couldn't be used to stuff pillows, although I don't know why not.

In rural areas some people spread the clippings in their yards to keep mountain lions away because the hair smells like humans, but that would only use a tiny percent of the cut hair.

Of course human hair is bio-degradable, so I guess sending it to landfills is practical, but it still seems like a waste to me.

Can anyone think of other ways those shreds could be used?

2 comments:

Susan Hornbach said...

I don't really know Jan . I was in the hair business for 30 plus years, and we always swept up the hair and threw it out. To make wigs we always started with lengthy wefts, and then cut them to order. Short pieces would be impossible to tie into a mesh. The garden idea sounded good to me.

Janet Ann Collins said...

Thanks, Susan. It's nice to hear from an expert.