Have you ever watched a beautician or barber clean up the floor after your haircut? Some sweep the discarded locks of hair into a nearby dustpan, while others push the hair into a vacuum nestled into the baseboard; but the ultimate question still stands – Where does of all of this hair really go? New research from Mississippi State University reveals that this unwanted hair might be headed straight for the farm.

The study, published in HortTechnology, determines whether commercially available noncomposted hair waste cubes can support plant growth in horticulture crops as a sole nutrient source. Currently, agricultural crop producers use fertilizers that consist of composted waste materials and byproducts. Some of the byproducts include: animal manure, municipal solid waste composts, and sewage sludge.

Horticulturists have had access to human hair for fertilizers for a few years, but hair has yet to be proven as a complete nutrient source for plants. The university study focused on the productivity of lettuce, wormwood, yellow poppy, and feverfew. In the experiment, the plants were grown in a commercial growth medium using four different fertilizers: untreated control, noncomposted hair cubes, controlled-release fertilizer, and water-soluble fertilizers. The study results indicate that crop yields were higher with added hair cubes than that of plants given untreated control, but lower than yields of plants treated with inorganic fertilizers.

The study’s results suggest that hair waste should not be used as a single nutrient source for plants with a quick growth rate. Researcher Vlatcho D. Zheljazkov proposes that hair waste can provide sufficient nutrients when degradation and mineralization of hair waste begins.

Although the recent study reflects positive results for hair waste usage in fertilizers, possible health concerns make further research on human hair waste in fertilizer indispensable. After all, we would not want to run the risk of having hair in our food!

Discussion Question: What other types of experiments could researchers design that would help prove that hair cubes are a reliable fertilizer?

Link to News Story: http://news.biocompare.com/News/NewsStory/257993/New-Use-for-Human-Hair.html

Link to Scientific Article Abstract: http://horttech.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/4/592