TORRINGTON—Sandy Towne, the owner of Groomingdales, of 1083 East Main Street, is looking for hair—dog hair, cat hair, horse hair, human hair.

Groomingdales, a pet grooming shop has started collecting the hair from their clients to send in to Matter Of Trust where it will be put to good use in the clean-up and containment efforts of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Matter of Trust is an ecological minded grassroots group that started the “International Natural Fiber Recycling Movement” to collect hair to be made into oil booms and hair mats to help collect oil from oil spills around the world, with the focus being on the Gulf of Mexico spill that is on-going.

Ms. Towne is offering her shop as a drop-off point for other hairdressers, pet-groomers, horse owners to drop off any hair they collect. The donated hair will be added to the shipments and she will absorb the shipping costs. Hair donations should be of clean hair/fur, any type of fur/waste wool, horse hair and even debris-free feathers are welcome.

“People that are grooming their horses or other animals are reminded to bring in that hair,” Ms. Towne said.

The hair will be sent to Matter Of Trust where it will be stuffed into recycled nylons and made into booms, or made into hairmats all to help absorb and contain the oil spill in the Gulf Of Mexico.

Matter Of Trust is handling the distribution of all hair donations so that the donations are dispersed evenly across the Gulf coast. The organization has a Web site at www.matteroftrust.org.

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