Cleaning Oil Spill Using Hair

Is it possible to clean oil spill using human hair?
Is it better to use synthetic hair or other method?

I read that engineer use human hair for analog meters, and seismograph. Is this true?

From Reuters: (Philippines).
Thousands of prisoners have been shaving their heads and chests to donate hair to help mop up the Philippines' worst oil spill, officials said on Wednesday. The collection was in response to a nationwide drive by the government to amass tonnes of hair and feathers to absorb more than 200,000 litres of industrial fuel that leaked from a tanker when it sank off the central island of Guimaras on Aug. 11.