Biology is involved in using human hair against oil pollution due to it being a natural bio-sorbents consisting of dead cells made up of the cuticle, water, lipids, trace elements and 65-95% proteins, mainly polymers of amino acids such as keratin and cysteine, medulla and cortex. The cuticle is highly hydrophobic, which makes it water repellent. It also contains numerous peptide bonds and CO- as well as NH- group which forms hydrogen bonds between neighboring molecules on the human organic follicle surface and has a highly porous cortex.

Chemistry is involved in human hair against oil pollution due to it being a lipophilic material, meaning it repels water but absorbs oil. Human hair is especially effective at absorbing oils and other polluting chemicals due to its physicochemical characteristics such as being pliable and resilient. Due to this, they can also recover from repeated mechanical deformations with little loss of their physical properties (Wolfram, 2003). It absorbs water and oil once it comes into contact with it because of its porous cortex (Vargiolu, 2013). But compared to the affinity between water and hair, the oil's affinity for the hair surface is significantly stronger. As a result, oil is absorbed more easily than water. This absorption is purely physical, and no chemical binding is created. This is what makes it possible to use hair to create hydrocarbon-specific depolluting filters.

Physics is involved in using human hair against oil pollution through the process of adsorption. Adsorption occurs when particles become attached to the top layer of materials, but does not enter the bulk phase of a liquid or solid. In this case, hair adsorbs oil, in a way where oil clings to hair due to the tiny scales that hair has, which snag and hold onto the oil (Rozell, 1998).