Business Opportunities Weblog

Business Opportunities in Hair

By on May 12, 2009 in Biz Ops

Yesterday at the barber, I couldn’t help but notice all of the hair on the floor. For some reason, getting my haircut really gets my entrepreneurial juices flowing. I asked what they did with all the hair that they collected during the day. The barber looked at me like I was from the Moon and said “We throw it away.”

Turns out, though, that there is a market for human hair, just not in the US.

In China, hair is a commodity, used in wigs and even as an additive in food. While American barbers sweep hair into the trash, Chinese haircutters sell their trimmings to brokers.

There’s a company in South Florida that’s got a new product that it says could revolutionize how food is grown in this country. The Smart Grow mat is all natural, inexpensive and eliminates the need for pesticides. You can probably guess what the make the mats out of: human hair!

Chinese hair is also more nutrient rich because it’s not as treated as Western hair. That means Smart Grow hair mats, which have the consistency of a soft brillo pad, come in just one color: black.

Marketplace on American Public Media has more.

agriculture weird

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

Another Idea: How to Start a Mobile Hair Salon Business

  • edwinjh

    I am Chinese, frankly speaking the barbers really throw away the hair here. There is lot of hair will be trashed out in barbershop, so if some one need Chinese hair, pls just contact me by mail: edwin9296@gmail.com
    Thanks

  • http://www.wfafranchiseconsultants.com Ed Wills, franchise consultant

    Wow, selling used hair. That is an idea. We own a coffee shop and sell used coffee grounds to gardeners. They are especially good for blueberry bushes. I suppose used hair is not that much different. Another use for human hair is to put it in old socks and tie it to fences or trees to keep deer away. They are repelled by the human scent. I think there are probably lots of ways to make money from trash. Just add creativity.

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