If you’ve ever searched “donate hair near me” and you live in the Bay Area, you’re in luck. Your next haircut could help clean local beaches and rivers, protect wildlife, and even improve gardens in your community. It turns out you shampoo for a reason: hair collects oil, and that same oil-grabbing power can be used to tackle pollution. In the San Francisco Bay Area, a nonprofit called Matter of Trust has a hair donation program that transforms trimmed tresses (and even pet fur and wool) into mats and booms that soak up oil spills, filter water, and enrich soil. This friendly guide will walk you through why and how to donate hair in the Bay Area, and the big difference your “trash” can make for the environment. Let’s dive into the hairy details!
Why Donate Hair? The Surprising Power of Hair Clippings
Donating hair isn’t just for making wigs, hair is a surprisingly effective environmental tool. Human and animal hair is naturally great at absorbing oils and trapping pollutants. That’s why your hair gets greasy and why we shampoo: hair collects oil. Matter of Trust recognized this and launched an innovative program to use donated hair, fur, and fleece to combat environmental issues. Here are some key reasons why your discarded hair clippings are actually eco-heroes in disguise:
- Soaks Up Oil Spills: Hair can act like a sponge for petroleum. In fact, researchers and even the U.S. government have found that hair is an effective sorbent for oil, meaning it can soak up oil from water. Instead of using synthetic, petroleum-based materials to clean oil spills, we can use human hair, a natural and renewable resource, to absorb the mess. It’s an eco-friendly alternative to the “silly cycle” of using oil products to clean oil spills. Every year, thousands of oil spills occur, but with plenty of hair salons and groomers producing pounds of cut hair daily, we have a renewable cleanup resource on hand.
- Prevents Water Pollution: Even small oil leaks and automotive drips pose a big threat to water quality. When it rains, oil and chemicals on our streets get washed into storm drains and out to the Bay. Hair donations help create mats and “booms” (long, sausage-shaped tubes) that can filter out these oils in storm drains and waterways, keeping motor oil and toxins out of our creeks and ocean. In other words, a few handfuls of hair clippings can protect thousands of gallons of water from contamination!
- Improves Soil and Gardens: Surprised to hear that hair can help plants? It can! Matter of Trust also turns shorter hair and fur clippings into a loose “hair mulch” for soil improvement and erosion control. Early trials in San Francisco’s Presidio Park showed that areas mulched with hair mats grew vegetation more robustly than untreated soil. Hair is rich in nitrogen and other nutrients as it breaks down, acting as a slow-release fertilizer for plants. Plus, hair mats placed around plants can retain moisture and even attract beneficial insects, one study noted that hair mats drew moths which are underrated (and effective) pollinators. Healthier grasslands and gardens mean better habitat for local wildlife.
- Reduces Waste: Donating hair also keeps waste out of landfills. Salons, pet groomers, and farms usually throw away huge amounts of hair, fur, wool, and even corks. By recycling these materials into environmental tools, we divert waste from the landfill and give it a second life. This helps reduce trash and promotes a “circular economy” where one industry’s leftovers become another program’s resource. Your haircut trimmings might otherwise sit in garbage bags, but through donation they can actively clean and green the community.
In short, hair is far from useless: it’s a natural, renewable resource for environmental protection. By donating, you’re turning something as ordinary as split ends or Fido’s fur into an extraordinary solution for oil pollution and soil restoration.
Matter of Trust: A Local Solution with a Global Vision
Matter of Trust is the San Francisco-based nonprofit making all this hair magic happen. Co-founded in 1998 by Lisa Craig Gautier, this organization’s mission is to link surplus materials (like hair, fur, wool, and even cork) with ecological initiatives. Instead of letting resources go to waste, Matter of Trust finds innovative ways to use them for the planet’s benefit, a concept they describe as “sorting waste into resources”.
What started as a clever idea by a hair stylist, Phil McCrory, (who noticed, while washing a client’s oily hair during the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill coverage, that hair might soak up oil) has now become a full-fledged program with international reach. Matter of Trust’s Hair Matters Program has been operating for decades, proving itself during real disasters. For example, when the Cosco Busan container ship collided with the Bay Bridge in 2007 and spilled 58,000 gallons of oil into the San Francisco Bay, Matter of Trust jumped into action. Hundreds of volunteers, including local surfers, helped lay out hair booms and mats along Ocean Beach, removing oil from the water and sand. Over just a few days, more than 3,000 hair mats were deployed to soak up the spill. Even the city’s then-mayor took note of their quick, eco-friendly response. This effort not only protected marine life and birds from the toxic oil, but afterwards the used hair mats were composted with oyster mushrooms and worms in an experiment at the Presidio, turning hazardous waste into healthy soil. Talk about a full-circle solution!
Today, Matter of Trust runs its Eco-Hub workshop in SoMa, San Francisco (opened in 2017), where staff and community volunteers actively transform piles of donated hair into useful mats and booms. The organization prides itself on a positive, can-do approach. “You want to start breaking down these large problems into bite-sized little things that people can do,” founder Lisa Gautier says: whether it’s donating hair or composting kitchen scraps. Matter of Trust makes it easy for individuals to make a small but tangible impact on environmental issues. No wonder they often refer to donors and participants as “eco-heroes”.
Although based here in the Bay Area, Matter of Trust’s vision has spread worldwide. They’ve established over a hundred satellite hubs (from Oklahoma to Japan to Colombia) that replicate the hair collection and felting process, aiming for “local fiber for local solutions” across the globe. So when you donate your hair in the Bay Area, you’re part of a larger movement of salons, groomers, farmers, and sustainability enthusiasts all working together to reuse what we have to protect our planet. It’s a mission-driven community grounded in the Bay Area but with arms around the world.
How Donated Hair Becomes Mats, Booms, and Mulch
Donating hair is only the beginning, what happens next is where science and creativity intertwine. Matter of Trust uses hair, fur, and fleece donations in several ingenious ways:
- Felting into Hair Mats: If you send in longer strands (about 5 inches or more), they are ideal for making hair mats. At the Eco-Hub factory in SF, donated hair is cleaned (if needed) and spread out on large tables. Using a felting machine or handheld felting tools, volunteers and staff compress and entangle the fibers into dense, carpet-like squares. These hair mats are typically about 2 feet square and can be layered or cut as needed. They’re placed in water or on land to absorb oil and chemicals. For instance, after an oil spill or a motor oil leak, crews can deploy hair mats to sit on the water’s surface or in a storm drain to rapidly soak up the pollution. Because they’re made of natural hair, the mats are hydrophobic (they repel water but attract oils) and can absorb 5 times, on average, their weight in hydrocarbons (oil and fuels). Once saturated, the mats are removed, taking the pollution with them.
- Stuffing into Booms: Shorter hair clippings, pet fur, and even nylon pantyhose find a second life as hair booms. Matter of Trust wraps mats around corks and ties it “sisal” like gute, (100% natural) rope – making flotation booms. These look like giant soft sausages and can be strung around spill areas or storm drains. Natural corks (yes, the kind from wine bottles) are added as lightweight floats on the ends of booms to keep them buoyant. During an ocean or bay spill, responders can encircle the slick with hair booms to contain it, or lay booms along a beach tideline to “sandbag” and protect the shore. The hair inside sucks up oil from the water, while the boom’s presence keeps oil from spreading further. It’s a clever way to leverage materials that would otherwise be thrown away, one recent Facebook photo even showed volunteers using leftover hair extensions to fill a boom! And unlike synthetic polypropylene booms, hair booms are 100% natural and non-toxic, shedding only minimal fibers that pose no harm (essentially just more hair in the environment, which wildlife already deal with).
- Blending into Mulch: The very shortest bits of hair, excess fur, wool fleece, and even laundry lint can be used as a form of fiber mulch. Rather than felting these short fibers, Matter of Trust and its partners spread them loosely in gardens or test plots as a top dressing on soil. This “hair mulch” helps retain soil moisture and adds nutrients as it slowly breaks down. Experiments in the Presidio National Park compared hair mulch to traditional straw mulch and even chemical fertilizers. The initial results were exciting: plots with hair mulch saw faster or more robust plant growth than some control plots without it. Over time, fungi and microbes in the soil help “mossify” the hair, integrating it into the earth. Because hair is rich in protein (keratin), it provides nitrogen to the soil, functioning as a slow-release fertilizer. And unlike quick-release chemical fertilizers, it won’t wash away and pollute waterways. This research is ongoing, but it hints at a future where salons and groomers could routinely contribute to local agriculture projects just by sending in clippings. Imagine community gardens or highway reforestation projects boosted by recycled hair!
- Everyday Filtering: Not every use of a hair mat is during a headline-grabbing disaster. Matter of Trust’s hair mats and booms also work quietly behind the scenes in everyday locations. Cities and organizations place them in storm drain boxes, under leaky vehicles or heavy machinery, at airport tarmacs where fuel drips, and at truck stops – anywhere there’s runoff that might carry oil into nature. By acting as passive filters, these hair products trap pollutants year-round. They even help in erosion control; for example, laying a hair mat on a slope or along a stream bank can stabilize soil and prevent sediment runoff during rains. In this way, donated hair is constantly at work protecting Bay Area waterways and beyond, not just during emergencies but as a routine environmental safeguard.
Volunteers in San Francisco secure a hair boom (a tube packed with donated hair) over a storm drain to catch oily runoff before it reaches the Bay. Matter of Trust’s hair mats and booms act as “urban water warriors,” filtering pollution in city streets, on highways, and even at airports. By placing these natural booms in strategic spots, the organization prevents motor oil and toxins from flowing out to local creeks and beaches. It’s a prime example of how a humble bag of hair clippings turns into a life-saving barrier for our Bay Area environment.
From these uses, it’s clear that every type of hair and fur donation finds a purpose. Long locks become woven mats; scruffy pet fur becomes part of a boom; floor sweepings of fuzz enrich a garden. Nothing goes to waste in this program, which is great news for both the environment and our goal of reducing landfill trash.
Who Can Donate? (Hint: Everyone: People, Salons, Pet
Groomers, and More)
One of the wonderful aspects of Matter of Trust’s donation program is how inclusive it is. Anyone with hair or fur, and any organization that handles these materials, can participate. If you’re in the Bay Area (or even beyond), here’s who can get involved:
- Individual Donors: If you’re a person with hair (that’s most of us!) and are planning a haircut, you can donate those shorn locks. There’s no minimum length to contribute – even strands just an inch long can serve a purpose (short fibers work well in mulch and booms). That said, if you do have a ponytail of 5 inches or longer, they especially encourage you to send it in because longer hair makes the best mats and scrims (the “lacy framework” inside mats). Don’t worry if your hair is dyed or grey or curly; all hair is welcome, as long as it’s clean and free of trash. Matter of Trust has received hair from kids who wanted to help the earth, from adults who decided to go for a short summer cut, and even from people donating extensions or shaving off a quarantine beard! It’s a feel-good way to mark a new hairstyle, knowing your old hair will continue to do good.
- Hair Salons and Barbershops: Calling all Bay Area stylists, your businesses are “gold mines” of recyclable fiber. Instead of tossing out bags of cut hair each day, salons and barbers can collect clippings in a box and periodically donate them. Matter of Trust accepts donations from many salons and has even partnered with chains or franchises in the past. By enrolling your salon, you not only reduce waste disposal costs, but you also get to tell clients that their haircut will help clean up an oil spill or protect a beach. (What a great conversation starter in the stylist’s chair!) Some salons host annual cut-a-thon events where people get haircuts for charity and the leftover hair all goes to the program. Even independent hairstylists can join: every little bit of hair helps. And as the Matter of Trust team likes to say, your stylists have a captive audience; spreading the word about donating hair can inspire more eco-heroes!
- Pet Groomers and Animal Shelters: Dog groomers, cat groomers, horse barns, any place that ends up with piles of fur or wool can contribute. Pet fur works just as well as human hair in the mats and booms. In fact, during the 2010 BP Gulf Coast oil spill, groomers across the country mailed in boxes of pet fur to help make booms for the disaster. The Bay Area is full of pet lovers, and all those fluffy clippings from Fido’s summer trim or Fluffy’s brushing can serve a higher purpose. Next time your groomer sweeps up a mound of dog hair, imagine it floating in the ocean safeguarding pelicans from oil: because that’s exactly what can happen when they donate it. Farmers who shear sheep or alpacas for wool, or even those who have llama or goat fiber, can also donate raw fleece. Wool is fantastic for felting into mats (after all, felt was traditionally made of wool), and it too absorbs oil effectively. Even feathers from bird rescue centers or poultry farms can be used, they haven’t forgotten about those!
Eco-Friendly Businesses (and Yes, Restaurants with Corks!): Matter of Trust’s ethos extends beyond hair. They also collect things like natural wine corks and other surplus materials for their various projects. So, if you run a restaurant or winery, save those corks instead of trashing them. The natural corks become little buoyant floats for hair booms: a perfect example of one industry’s scrap helping another industry’s eco-solution. Synthetic corks, interestingly, are being used in research for insulation projects (mixed with other fibers). Likewise, mechanics or garages who end up with used filters or absorbents might connect with Matter of Trust to see if there are recycling or cleanup collaborations. The charity is all about partnerships: currently they list the City of San Francisco, SFO Airport, and even the US Air Force (“Hair Force” as a pun) as partners in various hair recycling efforts. So whether you manage a huge pet grooming franchise or you’re just a resident who wants to make a difference, there’s a place for you in this program.
How to Donate Your Hair (It’s Easy and Rewarding)
Now that you know the why, let’s talk about how you can donate hair or other fibers as a Bay Area local. Matter of Trust has streamlined the process to be as convenient as possible for donors while managing the huge volume of donations they receive. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide:
1. Sign Up Online: Start by signing up on Matter of Trust’s HUMSUM.org (Humanity Adding Solutions) platform, a free eco-social network. This is where you’ll register as a donor. It’s a quick, spam-free signup. By registering, you enter your contact info and location, which helps the organization coordinate where to send your donation. They use this platform to match donors with the nearest collection hub or felting workshop that currently needs materials. (Remember, they have many partner hubs and limited storage, so they direct hair to where it can be used immediately.)
2. “Post” Your Hair as a Gift: After signing up, you’ll make a post on the HUMSUM.org platform offering your hair/fur donation. Think of it like a gifting marketplace, you list what you have (e.g., “10 inches of clean hair in a braid” or “bag of dog fur clippings”) under the Hair, Fur & Fiber, Hair Matters category. This step triggers the system to give you the current mailing instructions. Matter of Trust will message you with the address of the closest volunteer or workshop that is ready to receive hair. (If you’re in the Bay Area, often this might be their SF Eco-Hub or a local partner salon collecting donations.) This system ensures your package doesn’t get sent to an overloaded site or the wrong place, a smart way to handle thousands of donations efficiently. It also means if there’s an urgent oil spill need, they can quickly notify donors in that region to send hair ASAP.
3. Prepare and Ship Your Donation: Once you have the address, package up your hair or fur. A few tips: Make sure the hair/fur is dry (and preferably clean) to avoid mildew in transit. If you have a long ponytail, you can put a rubber band around it and place it in a ziplock bag. Short clippings can go in a sturdy garbage bag or box, Matter of Trust has seen everything from truck loads to pallets as well from salons to small envelopes from individual haircuts. Include a note with your HUMSUM.org post ID or name so they can match it to your account. Then simply mail or drop off the package to the provided address. Donors have happily reported how easy this is: one Bay Area contributor chopped off 10 inches of her hair, uploaded a photo of the ponytail, got a mailing address, and sent it off in an envelope; soon after, she learned it was being felted into a hair mat to clean waterways. Postage cost is a small trade-off for the impact your hair will have.
4. Feel Great (and Get a Thank-You): After donating, you can pat yourself on the back, you’ve just become an eco-hero! Your hair will soon be protecting a storm drain or soaking up an oil sheen somewhere. Matter of Trust often shares updates on social media and their website about what donations are up to. You might see photos of volunteers turning piles of hair (including yours) into mats, or news of mats being used in a spill cleanup. Donors on the HUMSUM.org platform can be offered complimentary feedback and will recieve thank-you letters, and you’re always welcome to reach out to Matter of Trust to learn about the journey of your donation. They truly consider donors partners in the mission. And if you’re local, you could even visit the Eco-Hub in person; they hold open-house events and tours where you can see mulch and learn about other green projects in their showroom, as well as the hair mat-making process firsthand with a simple factory booking. How cool is it to actually witness your contribution in action?
A quick note: Because Matter of Trust manages a dynamic network, they don’t publish a static drop-off address for hair (to avoid people sending packages to an unmanned location or at a time when a hub is full). That’s why the HUMSUM.org sign-up is required, it ensures you get the right address at the right time. It might feel like an extra step, but it’s an important one to make sure your effort has maximum effect. And it’s fast and free, as promised.
At Matter of Trust’s Eco-Hub factory in San Francisco, volunteers and staff sort through donated hair and fur to create hair mats. The organization provides safe, hands-on volunteer opportunities, from felting mats to stuffing booms, that are empowering for locals who want to help the environment. By turning waste fibers into valuable products, Matter of Trust creates green jobs and educational experiences for the community. (Don’t worry, sanitary precautions are taken, and as you can see, it can even be fun!)
Making a Local Impact: Your Hair, Your Community, Our
Planet
When you donate your hair in the Bay Area through Matter of Trust, you’re not just mailing away some clippings, you’re directly contributing to a healthier local environment and community. Consider the ripple effects:
- Cleaner Waterways in the Bay Area: The oil and grease from millions of cars in our region would eventually make its way to beaches, but hair mats are stopping a lot of that pollution in its tracks. This means cleaner fueling docs, storm drains, contaminated water tanks, and healthier marine life. The next time you stroll along Crissy Field or Ocean Beach, you can take pride knowing your hair donation might be among those protecting the shoreline from oil sheen. In fact, hair booms have been called out for “saving Bay Area beaches” in news headlines, and it’s true. By absorbing contaminants, they prevent damage to fish, birds, and delicate coastal ecosystems.
- Emergency Response Readiness: Living in a region with busy shipping lanes and industrial activity means spills can and do happen (as we learned in 2007). Thanks to community donations, Matter of Trust keeps stockpiles of hair mats ready for deployment in the Bay Area. They also keep a network of local donors on standby, remember, when you sign up, they can alert you if a big spill happens near you. More hair can be quickly gathered in a pinch. This community responsiveness can significantly limit the impact of oil spills, because the faster the clean-up materials arrive, the less oil spreads to sensitive areas. It’s a comforting thought that our region has this grassroots army in place, fueled by something as simple as salon waste.
- Greener Urban and Rural Spaces: The benefits go beyond water. As hair mulch trials continue, we could see more Bay Area parks, gardens, or farms using hair as a sustainable mulch or fertilizer substitute. Imagine community gardens in Oakland or San Jose boosting crop yields with hair compost, or hillside restoration projects in Marin using hair to establish vegetation on slopes. It’s all about improving soil quality and plant growth naturally. Healthier plants mean better air quality, more green cover, and prettier neighborhoods for all of us. Even wildlife wins, more robust plant growth creates more food and shelter for insects, birds, and small mammals in our local parks.
- Educational Ripple Effect: Matter of Trust’s presence in the Bay Area also educates and inspires others. They operate an Eco-Home in SF’s Cole Valley, showcasing sustainable living ideas for city dwellers (open to visitors during special exhibits). They host workshops for students and interns, teaching the next generation about recycling, composting, and renewable resources. When you donate or volunteer, you might end up sharing the story with friends, and that spreads awareness. A child who learns about hair mats in a school demo today could be an environmental scientist tomorrow! By supporting this cause, you help cultivate a culture of eco-consciousness in our community.
- Strengthening Community Bonds: There’s something heartwarming about knowing that salons, pet groomers, and residents all over the Bay Area are collaborating on this common mission. It’s a very inclusive, community-driven effort. Hair donations come from people of all ages and backgrounds. Volunteers at events range from Girl Scout troops to retired engineers to local surfers. Salons in fancy downtown SF high-rises join forces with humble barbershops in small towns, all donating their clippings. This mission-driven positivity brings people together. In a way, donating hair becomes a conversation starter and a point of pride in the community (“Our town’s hair is cleaning up the coast!”). Matter of Trust emphasizes looking at the positive and what individuals can do, which builds optimism and togetherness.
Finally, the impact of your hair donation isn’t confined to the Bay Area. It contributes to a global knowledge base. Scientists study the effectiveness of hair in cleaning water, partly thanks to the real-world deployments by Matter of Trust. Engineers, environmental agencies, and nonprofits worldwide have taken note of the success here and are replicating it elsewhere. Your hair could literally be part of what leads to better oil spill response techniques worldwide. And as Matter of Trust scales up to hundreds of hubs globally by 2030, they carry the pioneering spirit of the Bay Area with them. We’re leading by example.
Be an Eco-Hero: Donate Hair, Save the Bay (and Beyond!)
In the end, a simple act like donating your hair or pet’s fur can have an outsized impact. It’s one of those beautiful win-win situations, you get a fresh new haircut, and the environment gets a little cleaner and greener. If you’re in the Bay Area, you have this unique opportunity to support a local nonprofit (Matter of Trust) that’s making a global difference. They’re friendly, passionate, and driven by the mission to turn “trash” into treasure for the planet. By contributing, you become part of that story.
So next time you or someone you know is wondering, “Where can I donate hair near me?”, you can confidently say: Right here in the Bay Area, to a cause that helps improve water quality, soil stabilization, soil remediation, erosion prevention, aids wildlife, and advances research. It’s as easy as tying up your hair clippings and reaching out to Matter of Trust.
Join the movement, let your hair live on as a fluffy foot soldier in the fight for a cleaner environment. Your local community will thank you, from the beaches to the bay to the parks, and you’ll inspire others to consider what creative solutions might be hiding in plain sight. In the words of Matter of Trust, by donating your hair, fur, or even corks, “together we are sorting waste into resources” and showing that everyone can help make our world a little better. That’s a positive, powerful mission we can all get behind.
Ready to make a difference with your next haircut? Visit Matter of Trust (matteroftrust.org) to get started, and become part of the Bay Area’s very own sustainable hair force. 🌎✂️ Donate hair, grow hope, and let’s keep the Bay Area beautiful, one haircut at a time.