Carr drives hairy cause in Gulf

BP’s environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has brought on a worldwide wave of innovative oil spill clean-up technology with a Burleigh hair salon joining the plight.

Recreate Yourself Hair and Beauty Salon is collecting the unwanted hair of customers to be made into absorbent booms for use at oil spills and other environmental disasters as part of its Cut for a Cause campaign.

Director Bradley Carr says when he heard that an organisation was helping to clean up oil spills with human hair, he knew his business was tailored to play a part.

“You’d be crazy not to want to help. We heard about it in the media and no one in Australia was really doing it,” says Carr.

“We’ve been trying to explain it to customers and they are more than supportive. There have even been customers saying ‘I’ll come to your salon next time because you’re doing something to help that the others aren’t’.

“Many people aren’t very environmentally involved but when it’s as easy as this they are happy to be a part.”

The floor sweepings of the salon will be sent to US-based charity Matter of Trust where volunteers have packed them into netting to make floating booms that capture oil floating on the water’s surface. The campaign was kicked off in July and has been well received by customers.

“We’ve filled up a couple of big garbage bags and we’re trying to get enough for a big box to send off,” says Carr.

“It’s actually quite surprising just how much we’ll need to fill that box. We cut a lot of hair off people’s heads but once in a bag the hair compresses.”

Carr says it’s an important aspect of running any type of business to look at the environmental impact.

“Running a salon we use a fair amount of water and electricity, so this is something environmentally friendly and effective that we can help with,” he says.

“We’ve even had other salons contact us and ask if they could combine their clippings as well.”