Hair sea rescue!

Have you ever asked yourself what happens to your hair when the barber has cut it off? Mostly, it just ends up in the bin. But Thierry Gras, who cuts hair for a living in the south of France had another idea for this waste. He remembered that when he was studying to be a hairdresser he'd learned that human hair had some remarkable properties - notably, our hair can soak up grease and oil, almost like a sponge.

‍Make me a sausage!

Thierry loves going out in boats to fish in the Mediterranean Sea, near where he lives. He often saw streaks and patches of oil on the water, which comes from boats and which poisons the fish and spoils the sea for fishers and swimmers.

One day he realised that he had a solution for this right under his nose - hair! To soak up the oil on the water he needed a simple design. He started by making "sausages" out of old nylon tights stuffed with handfuls of hair. Now he uses specially made material to hold the hair. With his team, he places hair sausages in the water, lets them suck up oil that comes along, and then they're taken out and washed and put back in to work again. 

International network

Thierry couldn't have done very much all on his own. He set up an organisation called Coiffeurs Justes (Fair Hairdressers) to tell other people in his profession about his ideas to help the environment. Since starting in 2015, there are now thousands of hair salons across France and sone neighbouring countries which have joined up. They send big bags of hair to Thierry. And then they're turned into more hair sausages to clean the sea.

‍