Les Reyes (the owner of a chain of salons) has ordered all his 200 branches and franchises to collect customers' hair. The Philippine International Hairdressers Association is also mobilizing. All because of another environmental disaster caused by an oil spill: a tanker chartered by Petron Corp. sank on August 11 in Philippine waters.

The oil spill is affecting some 2,500 fisher folk and several poor island towns that rely on fish and seaweed for livelihood. The Philippine Coast Guard has appealed for chicken feathers and human hair to sponge it up. Everybody who's ever had problems with dandruff knows about the oil-absorbing qualities of human hair.

Actually, hair doesn't really "absorb" oil; it adsorbs oil; the oil gets trapped in the tiny scales that make up human hair. Feathers and straw are other naturally-occurring and renewable resources now commonly used to adsorb oil, although human hair is still the best. And by the way, thanks to bulatlat.com for the picture.