IT appears Jackie Yong was always destined for a career working with people\u2019s hair, it just may not be the kind she might have imagined when she opened her first business.<\/p>\n
It was while working at her successful salon in Melbourne that an idea was born.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to be a hairdresser back in the day and I owned a salon in St Kilda,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was during a drought when I was cleaning the salon floor and I thought, \u2018look at all this hair, I wonder if this could help hold moisture\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Yong said it made her think, so much so she went home and did a little digging online, and in the garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did a little research and I went headfirst down this rabbit hole and found out that hair is good for composting,\u201d she said. \u201cIt has all these good nutrients and does amazing stuff for the soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day as I was doing some trials and could see where I was mixing chopped hair with potting mix that the grass was growing faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought \u2018ok, I am on to something here\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a straightforward journey for Ms Yong from there, but now she is the owner-operator of Soilz Alive a successful composting business in Bendigo and it\u2019s thanks to hair.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that hair really is a remarkable product,\u201d she said. \u201cIt essentially has the highest nitrogen level of any composting material. It has 27 trace elements, and it has amino acids.<\/p>\n
\u201cHair is actually a protein, it\u2019s keratin. We eat proteins to make us big and strong. Soils need it as well. When people use blood and bone, for example, that\u2019s a concentration with protein in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at hair it\u2019s quite deceiving, it doesn\u2019t really do much and it certainly doesn\u2019t look like much, but it is just this big bunch of goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n
You will find Ms Yong and Soilz Alive at the Bendigo Sustainability Festival, at Garden for the Future on Sunday, 26 March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
IT appears Jackie Yong was always destined for a career working with people\u2019s hair, it just may not be the kind she might have imagined when she opened her first business. It was while working at her successful salon in Melbourne that an idea was born. \u201cI used to be a hairdresser back in the […]<\/p>\n