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Human Hair
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Posted by
joanie_pomseed 8 (
My Page) on
Thu, Jun 30, 11 at 20:14
| I accidentally posted this to Organic Gardening the first time.
Is hair one of those animal products that require special care or an extended process to compost, or can I just toss it in the pile like table scraps? I don't imagine there would be any harm in that; I mean, a lot of people here compost bird feathers without any extra trouble, right?
Can hair be cold-composted? I've seen videos of insects eating it. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Human Hair
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| I had problems with hair from an Akita, but that's probably because they have oily undercoats. Toss it in and see what happens. |
RE: Human Hair
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| I say toss it in as always everything in moderation just fine for a hair trim probably not a great idea with trash bags full |
RE: Human Hair
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| Pile it on. I warn you, though, it can clump and every time you come upon it in a garden, you will, if you're anything like me, imagine that you've just unearthed a corpse. |
RE: Human Hair
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| Hair is keratin, a protein. Human hair can be added to your compost pile as long as not too much is added at any one time since it does tend to mat. I would be careful of hair from a source where it is bleached, dyed, and sprayed heavily. |
RE: Human Hair
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| I don't have a problem with hair in the compost...it's the teeth and bones that are tough. ;-) tj |
RE: Human Hair
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| I once had a link to one of the men's hair coloring products which said it contained arsenic. I would post it to any hair composting threads just to be a brat. None of the hyper-vigilant seemed to mind if there was arsenic in their compost. |
RE: Human Hair
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Arsenic is present all around us everyday. In large enough quatities it is a poison while lower levels may cause many health problems. Some of our food plants appear to uptake Arsenic to aid in controlling insect pests. In the 1700 and 1800 years women deliberately took Arsenic to improve their complexions, sometimes with really bad results.
Like Lead Arsenic is today all around use so knowing that and that small quantities probably are not all that harmful is part of what should be our knowledge base. |
RE: Human Hair
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| Thanks, everyone. I agree with Kimmsr about the arsenic--"toxicity is quantitative. Anyone remember this from last decade? I don't use dyes or bleach, anyway, which is why, as I've very recently learned, my hair is the color of my soil. Whether that's a good thing or not, I suppose I'll find out. (Ann, if by 'corpse' you mean a present from my neighbor's cat, I'm inclined to agree. O_O) |
RE: Human Hair
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| Toss it in as long as there aren't hair products on it. I've also spread it as mulch or on plants or fencing when I want to discourage deer. Yes, to cold composting & haven't had a problem with using Pomeranian dog hair or human hair from our home haircuts. |
RE: Human Hair
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| I would think it's very unlikely that any product you can put directly on your body is going to cause toxic effects once filtered through the compost and mixed (read: diluted) into soil in which plants are grown. (Although the thing about arsenic in hair products is intriguing. The exposure would be much higher when using the stuff, and if it's safe for that, well. Keratin is the same stuff of fingernails and will break down VERY slowly. |
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