The connection between dog grooming and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill might seem, at first blush, a tenuous one at best -- but thanks to a charity called Matter of Trust, the two seemingly incongruous things are linked in a great way.

The San Francisco-based organization has advocated environmental education and the repurposing of surplus materials for eco-friendly projects since its inception in 1998.

A few years later, the group began using both human hair and pet fur to create mats that are oil-adsorbent -- a term that means that oil clings to the mats, rather than being absorbed into them -- and can be used to help contain oil spills.

"You shampoo your hair because it gets greasy," hairstylist and oil spill hair mat inventor Phil McCrory explains on Matter of Trust's website. "Hair is very efficient at collecting oil out of the air, off surfaces like your skin and out of the water, even petroleum oil."