Pet groomers in northern Jefferson County are accepting donations to help with the oil spill crisis at the Gulf of Mexico.

But they aren’t asking for money; instead, many groomers are collecting hair.

“Hair absorbs the oil,” said Al Ramsey, a groomer who works with Stewart Animal Clinic in Warrior. “When they get the oil absorbed, they can squeeze it out of the hair booms and salvage the oil.”

Ramsey has been collecting hair for two weeks. He also works in Huntsville and Guntersville.

“I’ve got hair from everything from horses to cats to dogs. They don’t really care what it is, it’s all hair,” said Ramsey.

Myra Mabrie, owner of Doggie’s Choice Grooming Salon in Fultondale, said her shop used to just throw the hair away.

“Until this happened, we didn’t know they could use dog hair to do this,” said Mabrie. “All the groomers and hair salons ought to do it.” Mabrie said she would help deliver other groomers’ hair to collection centers if they couldn’t do it themselves.

Karen Morro, owner of Myra’s Pet Salon in Gardendale, said they just started collecting, but that hair accumulates quickly.

“We can fill up a 39 gallon garbage can in a day,” said Amanda Horsley, a groomer at Myra’s Pet Salon. Ramsey said he can collect as much as 20 pounds of hair a day, and Mabrie said she has collected several 50-gallon size garbage bags full of hair.

Horsley said most of the hair is even clean, since the animals are usually bathed before they have their hair cut.

Each groomer sends the hair to a collection center: Doggie’s Choice sends theirs to Trussville, Myra’s Pet Salon is sending theirs to a radio station that’s holding a hair drive, and Ramsey sends his to a woman in Huntsville. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico started on April 20. It covers at least 2,500 square miles.