Hair cut in a barber shop is recycled and then sorted. Generally speaking, according to the length, it is divided into 4 inches, 6 inches, 8 inches, 10 inches, and 10 inches or more. These different lengths of shredded hair have different uses and values.
The first use, the most common use for long broken hair, is to make wigs. Short hair, on the other hand, can be processed into short wigs, false eyebrows, fake beards, and brush heads.
The second use is to process broken hair into an amino acid solution. Hair is rich in amino acids, which can be used to make amino acid liquids, which are widely used in baking creams, perms, conditioners and other products to protect hair.
However, there are also some unscrupulous merchants who will take advantage of this feature to commit violations. In 2004, CCTV's weekly quality report program exposed that black-hearted factories made broken hair into unhealthy soy sauce, but this practice has now been explicitly banned.
The third use, human hair keratin extracted from broken hair, can be used to make clothes. This human hair keratin is absorbent, washable, crease-resistant, and UV-resistant.
Fourth, hair can also be used to make luminescent particles. As an excellent source of carbon and nitrogen, hair is incinerated in an oxygen-free, high-pressure, high-temperature environment and can be turned into fluorescent carbon dots. These nano-sized carbon dots emit light when a weak voltage is applied, and although they are not very bright, they can be applied to small-scale displays.
The fifth use, hair has the ability to absorb oil stains, which can be used to adsorb oil leaked at sea. Even though the hair looks smooth, the surface is actually covered with various crevices and holes, which can easily absorb oil. Therefore, hair is an ideal adsorption material for spilled oil floating in the West Sea. It can absorb about 8.4 litres of crude oil per kilogram of hair.
Sixth, hair can also be used to make fertilizer. Because hair is rich in nutrients needed by plants such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Crops can more easily absorb these nutrients by drying or boiling the hair, chopping or shredding it, sprinkling it on plant roots or burying it in the soil. Hair that has been incinerated can also release nutrients more easily.
Seventh, hair can also be used to make hair embroidery. Using the natural colors of hair such as black, brown, yellow, white, and gray, combined with painting and embroidery techniques, exquisite hair embroidery works are produced.
By recycling and processing the broken hair cut by the barbershop, these seemingly useless broken hair can be reused, which not only reduces the waste of resources, but also brings certain economic benefits to the barber shop and related industries. At the same time, this recycling model also reflects the concept of sustainable development, which is worth advocating and promoting.