Local Bishops hair salons are offering a bizarre deal right now: get a haircut, help with the Gulf Coast oil spill cleanup.

A man and his hair. Courtesty Matter of Trust.
  • A man and his hair. Courtesty Matter of Trust.

Apparently human hair sops up oil pretty well. And apparently there is a nonprofit, Matter of Trust, dedicated to collecting thousands of pounds of human and animal hair ("fur"), stuffing the hair into nylon leggings and using the resulting nylon-hair piles to clean up BP's oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. The things you learn!

But no, seriously, the premise makes sense. Hair attracts oil and salons have lots of extra hair lying around (the average salon throws out three pounds a day, says Matter of Trust). So now Bishops and other barbershops around the United States are pledging to ship their hair clippings to the Gulf.

Hey, it's no more ridiculous than BP's "junk shot" plan.