To many, the clippings found on the floor of Salon Bellezza (3355 Plymouth Blvd. Ste. 160; 763.559.9661) look like ordinary hair. But in fact, it’s much more than that—this hair is life-saving. Salon Bellezza, along with thousands of salons across the nation, swept up its tresses and sent them off to the Gulf Coast to help clean up the BP oil spill almost a year ago—but that’s not the only thing these locks of love can do.
“I saw my friend on Facebook in a Wisconsin Salon sending hair and thought it was a good idea,” co-owner Janet Long says. “We have a Central Vac system that collects hair into bags, which I mailed to Matter of Trust,” a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has spearheaded nearly a dozen similar environmental projects. Long says the Plymouth salon sent about six large vacuum bags full of hair via UPS, with the cost of shipping a part of their donation.
Matter of Trust president Lisa Gautier says the organization makes the hair booms, which look like large sausages, from materials like fur, fleece and hair clippings, and eventually form them into wide-sweeping mats. “Stick your head in olive oil, and see how hair holds it,” Gautier says with a laugh. “It works.”
Not only are these mats effective, but they’re also renewable. “Why pay to make synthetic nets?” Gautier quips. Salons aren’t the only businesses joining the effort: Hanes donated nylons, and Spanx donated pallets to the nonprofit, which itself is booming. “We started 12 years ago and between April and May, we grew more than we grew in those 12,” Gautier says. matteroftrust.org
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Janet Long says the salon has been busy these days keeping Plymouth women in fabulous dos, thanks to the Brazilian blow-out craze that recently hit the town.
