Curly, wavy or straight, long or short, we do a lot with our hair. It grows about half an inch per month. Most of us just cut it off and throw it away, or should we?
Researchers from UC Berkeley and ecologists from the Presidio in San Francisco are exploring the question: Can human hair boost the soil of our farms and fields and help us combat the effects of climate change?
Our first stop is at Cal’s Department of Environmental Sciences, where CBS News Bay Area met with ecosystem ecologist Dr. Whendee Silver and guest researcher Dr. Tibisay Perez. The scientists study the biogeochemical effects of climate change, the human impact on the environment and possible ways to mitigate the effects.
One strategy: grow more plants to remove climate-warming CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in the soil.
One way to do that could be to use human hair.
“If it turns out that this is the case, it would be very exciting,” Silver said.
The scientists collected untreated hair from a local beauty salon. The strands were then ground up and then placed in small bottles.
Silver showed us the bottles. “We take a very small amount… just 0.2 grams and then spread it on the ground,” she explained.
The soil the researchers use is poor and not very fertile. They picked it up from Marin County.
In the laboratory, student Kai Nittenberg added small amounts of hair to potting soil samples. Eight weeks later, the researchers collected some promising preliminary results.
“We started seeing signs that the hair was starting to break off,” Silver said.
“When we started seeing the changes in the hair-amended soils, we had higher nutrient levels,” Perez added.
The scientists noticed that the hair acted like a slow-release organic fertilizer and turned the bad soil into good soil. They said one possible explanation is that the hair contains nitrogen.
“Hair breaks down slowly and that nitrogen is packed into the hair in such a way that it is released slowly,” says Silver.
The researchers also measured nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, in the jars. But they quickly told CBS News Bay Area that they had no concerns in this case.
“In our experiment, there were no plants. We did this in the absence of plants to simplify the experiment. But if the plants had been there, chances are they could have captured that nitrogen,” Silver noted.
Once the plants gain access to the slowly released nitrogen, it can result in slow, long-term growth. That phenomenon appears to be happening in other hair experiments now taking place at The Presidio in San Francisco.
CBS News Bay Area went to an open field in the National Park and met with Lewis Stringer, Associate Director of Natural Resources at the Presidio Trust. The ecologist showed us where the experiments took place and the growth is quite impressive.
“We just spread it on these little plants that were barely growing. They could barely survive and that resulted in this beautiful meadow of bunch grasses, and this wouldn’t have happened if those hairs hadn’t been taken out,” Stringer said.
He guided us around some rocky areas and pointed out lush plots full of native plants.
“It’s amazing. I never thought hair could be so productive in helping us restore these very barren soils,” said the park ecologist.
In a pair of experiments, park researchers staked out plots of land and seeded them all with the same amount of seeds to produce native plants. The only difference was the way these plots were treated. They were given straw mulch, hair, fertilizer or nothing at all.
Our eyes couldn’t believe it: the most lush plots were the ones treated with hair.
“There’s a lot more growth in those patches of hair where there’s only fertilizer or compost,” Stringer explains.
The experiments at the Presidio and UC Berkeley were both funded by Matter of Trust, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that collects donated hair.
Lisa Gautier is co-founder and CEO of the group. Gautier showed CBS News Bay Area that the hair compost adheres to the soil and is absorbed into the soil.
She also told us how her hair contains other beneficial nutrients that boost the rich soil. Gautier explained that Mother Nature had the right idea for millions of years when animals shed their fur, birds shed their feathers and humanity shed their hair, it fell to the forest floor, the ground absorbed it and used it in a cycle she calls ‘ the silent fiber cycle.”
“This is a renewable resource that is growing before our eyes,” says Gautier.
“Whether I remove my cat’s hair or cut my children’s hair, it now always goes into my garden and helps fertilize it,” Stringer said.
“I’m starting to think about what else can she do?” smiled Silver.
And that can make every day a good hair day.
The Presidio is about to analyze data from its field studies, and Silver told us her results are preliminary and that the next study will involve plants.
If you’re inspired to throw your hair in the garden or plants, there’s a word of caution: stay away from long hair. The long strands can entangle and harm birds and other small creatures.
Matter of Trust says to work the strands into the soil, and you can even use small pieces of hair or fur from your pets. You can also donate hair, fur and fleece to Matter of Trust. You can register here.
