• The France has 22 million domestic dogs and cats. And how many billions of hairs they leave lying behind? Olivia Cayre speaks of 6,500 tons per year, just counting those fallen to the ground of grooming salons and veterinary clinics.
  • Most often, if not always, they end up with the rest of the household waste, buried or incinerated. Not great. So, since 2018, Val-de-Marnaise and its partner, Thomas Alexandre, have been working on alternatives.
  • Brosseur, their company, has already collected nearly a ton of hair, part of which has been transformed into felt, a material with many possible outlets. Above all, the duo is launching a crowdfunding campaign to try to go much further.

"Every week, I easily harvest five kilos," says Vanessa, a canine groomer from the Paris region who travels to her home. Kilos of hair of course, doggies of all kinds and sizes that pass through his hands. A sweep and they land (we're talking about hairs eh) in the trash can with the other household waste. Clearly, if we unwind the thread to the end, "they end up either buried or incinerated," laments Olivia Cayre.

So much for the classic pattern, the one followed by the vast majority of the 6,000 grooming salons and 5,000 veterinary clinics. There is no official study, but the Val-de-Marnaise easily estimates at 6,500 tons the amount of hair thrown in the garbage each year.


Launch of a crowdfunding campaign

There is much more to do. Olivia Cayre is convinced of this and has been working since 2018, with her partner Thomas Alexandre, to find them another way out. In short, to create the first recycling and recovery of pet hair. The project is called "Brosseur" and is gradually taking shape in their workshop in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. The launch, this week, of a crowdfunding campaign on the Ulule platform should allow the passage of an even more step in the research and development of new outlets.

Still, Olivia and Thomas have already begun to collect their first hair. Those of Boul de Pwal, Vanessa's self-business, "and a dozen grooming salons in the south-east of Paris," says Olivia Cayre. Brosseur is already at nearly a ton collected, part of which has begun to be processed.

An ozone box to clean them

In short, here again, there is plenty to do. "And 100 tons, that's still a very small part of the 4,000 we collect each year in France shows," says Thierry Gras, who is less and less called the fada.on vain.tielle project, like those that are hung on the mirrors of cars. "But this one comes from recycled or bio-based material and recharges endlessly", van federates 5,600 hairdressers and recovers a hundred tons of hair per year. "The hair fiber has a lipophilic property that allows it to fix solar oils and hydrocarbons," he says. So of this hair, we mainly make depollution socks to install in ports or boat holds and we work on variations for waterways. ".nt the keratin thus obtained and further improve the process. This Ulule campaign is also launched with this in mind.

"We discovered that some beekeepers use ozone to disinfect, sanitize and purify their hives affected by ringworm, with the big advantage that it does not consume water," she continues. Olivia and Thomas are inspired by it and build their own ozone chamber. Installed in the courtyard, each bag of hair harvested passes through it.

Insulation, shoe soles, padding for down jacket...

Then? "By brushing them in the same direction and then entangling them with small needles, we make felt out of them," says Olivia Cayre, who works on this part with the Centre d'essai du textile lorrain (Cetelor), supported by the University of Lorraine. By mixing them with linen, hemp, recycled cotton or even recycled plastic, several types have been created - a dozen to date - which vary in density and thickness. »

Behind, the opportunities are multiple. "This felt can be used as insulation in construction, to padding down jackets, making shoe soles, soundproofing parts for the automotive or aeronautical industries, toys ... " lists Olivia Cayre. Prototypes have already been made, it remains to precisely characterize the properties of these felts, then obtain certifications, a step prior to any commercialization. This is what this crowdfunding campaign is mainly for.

And then, the hair of dogs and cats, it also flows. This is a second valuation on which Brosseur is working, this time, with the artist Juliette Blet, from Croche Poil. "From our hair, she managed to make a thread that can then be made into bracelets and other accessories," says Olivia Cayre, who sees it as another project still to be developed.


Go so far as to extract keratin

To tell the truth, the entrepreneur is working on a third valorization: after felt, thread, keratin, a natural protein that is fond of, in particular, the cosmetics industry. "The hair is 95% of it," says Olivia Cayre. However, by creating the felt, we drop micro-fibers that we can recover to extract the keratin. Head back to Cetelor, more precisely one of its laboratories: Lermab. "We carried out several successful tests this winter, using the steam explosion, a physico-chemical process that we are rediscovering today and which has the advantage of using no chemical substances," explains Nicolas Brosse, professor at the University of Lorraine. It now remains for us to precisely characterize the keratin thus obtained and further improve the process. This Ulule campaign is also launched with this in mind.

While waiting for all these leads to come to fruition, Olivia and Thomas have just launched a first product, made in a traditional way, from their felt: the "Fir tree". It is a diffuser of perfume or essential oil, like those that hang on the mirrors of cars. "But this one comes from recycled or bio-based material and recharges endlessly," boasts the Val-de-Marnaise.



The hair in the footsteps of the hair?

Perhaps, Brosseur will not go further than this artisanal stage. "It won't be so bad, we will have tried and harmed no one," says Olivia Cayre, who expects to come across some embittered people judging her project futile from the outset.

"I was called the fada," smiles, a thousand kilometers to the south, Thierry Gras whose story is reminiscent of that of Brosseur. Except that the Var hairdresser collects and values the hair of his customers. "Since 2015 and again starting from the observation that no recycling channel existed then," he says. Eight years later, his association "Coiffeurs justes" federates 5,600 hairdressers and recovers a hundred tons of hair per year. "The hair fiber has a lipophilic property that allows it to fix solar oils and hydrocarbons," he says. So of this hair, we mainly make depollution socks to install in ports or boat holds and we work on variations for waterways. ».

In short, here again, there is plenty to do. "And 100 tons is still only a very small part of the 4,000 we collect each year in France salons," says Thierry Gras... which is less and less called the fada.

  • Environment
  • Animals
  • Ile
  • Recycling
  • Planet
  • Dog
  • Cat
  • Paris
  • Hair