Human Hair and Compost Piles

What do I know - since you don't seem to be getting answers.

Human hair is I believe nearly all protein, and breaks down very slowly. Hair has at times over history been woven and spun and stuffed into garments, bedding, pillows, fabrics.

Composting is a bacterial action - natural oils (grease, waste oil, etc) are very bad in *most* typical above ground aerobic composts.

I would imagine petroleum is worse.

"Also google "hair soy" and "amino acid L-Cysteine human hair"

So in summary you can eat it."

You could ; it just wouldn't taste good . Also, you may have a little problem trying to digest it , if hairballs in cats are any indication .

The hair is converted into amino acid L-Cysteine, then added to some foods, so OBVIOUSLY you wouldn't be eating a plate full of hair, that's what quality control is for!

oilspill to compost pile??? no. uh-uh. not.

Cysteine rich peptides do have a role in bioremediation or cleanups of toxic sites: the cysteine gives them a high affinity for heavy metals. Bioremediation takes a long time, it's not your backyard compost to grow tomatoes in next year. Toxic stuff that doesn't break down over many cycles ( or ever, as in metals) has to be collected and removed.

Cysteine rich peptides are also used to make tetracysteine tags for fluorescent imaging of cells. Something to do with your human-hair-cysteine instead of soy sauce

Then again, you could always make rope instead.. hair rope making tools are kinda cool...