Suzana Pesa was disgusted by the images of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that she saw on television. She jumped on the Internet and was soon linked to a Facebook effort to gather hair clippings from local salons to make hair booms to soak up the waves of black, greasy gook.

"When it happened, I was really upset," said Pesa, a dental assistant living in Mount Vernon. "I was looking for anything I could do to help."

In two weeks, Pesa gathered two garbage bags filled with hair clippings from 10 salons in Baltimore.

"There were a lot of people who were really helpful, and they asked if they could do anything else," she said. "They really wanted to help."

Hair salons nationwide have been gathering clippings in an attempt to make sausage-like hair booms, which are being used to absorb the oil in the Gulf.

Alan Kolb, owner of Sprout, an organic salon in Hampden, has been donating hair clippings for the past few years after a 2007 oil spill that affected San Francisco Bay.

"The idea of recycling something that is a byproduct of our operation just made sense with our philosophy," Kolb said. "If we have something that is useful to someone else, we'll do it."

Since the Gulf spill, Kolb estimates that his salon has gathered up to 200 pounds of human hair.

The hair boom effort has also gotten help from the Hooters restaurant chain.

Employees have been donating laundered pantyhose for Project Pantyhose, which uses it to make the casing for the hair, fur and fleece that absorbs the oil. Each boom can be reused eight times, Hooters officials say.

Eleven Hooters locations in Maryland, Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia collected 1,300 pairs of pantyhose, according to Gretchen Drury, regional manager for Hooters of America Inc.

"We wanted to help a great cause," Drury said. "This is something that can help the environment, people and businesses. … I truly hope that this helps make an impact in the cleanup in the Gulf."

In June, Hooters collected more than 100,000 pairs of pantyhose nationwide, enough for 15 miles of booms that could absorb up to 1 million gallons of oil.

Other possible solutions being pitched for the cleanup include a Kevin Costner-backed device that uses centrifugal force to spin oil out of water; a method devised by a Florida-based company in which hay is spread on the oil and the slick gathered up with aquatic weed harvesters; and an oil-separation device invented by an Italian firm.

BP, which has been skimming oil, burning it or dowsing it with chemical dispersants to quicken its breakdown, has said that it does not plan to use the hair booms. But hair boom makers such as Matter of Trust, a San Francisco-based company that has been funding eco-friendly projects since 1998, have said they will collect the booms for future spills or as the oil spreads to other areas.

Trish White, owner of the salon Tenpachi in Fells Point, was also collecting hair before the oil spill in the Gulf.

"It is really important to give back," White said. "It is something that we would throw out anyway. If we can keep it out of the landfills, and if we can do something positive with it, that will be excellent."

Used weaves and extensions made from human and horse hair, and animal hair collected by groomers, can also be donated, White said.

"It's really effective," White said of the many uses for human hair. Prior to the gulf spill, Tenpachi was also donating hair for composting. Hair used to absorb oil from the spill can also be used for composting, according to White.

The outpouring for the hair booms has been immense, despite BP's rejection of the product. Matter of Trust has been overwhelmed with hair donations.

"There is no room to accept any more boxes at this time," according to the company's website. The company's president, Lisa Craig Gautier, has said that all 19 of her Gulf-based warehouses are filled. "This spill is a marathon, not a sprint. Oil will be coming in for months and years."

Pesa has been pleased with the effort, but still thinks that more can be done.

"There are a lot of people who want to help and they don't know where to go," Pesa said. "This is a disaster. I'm really upset about it."

john-john.williams@baltsun.com

Sun wire services contributed to this article.