A hoax news release about Enbridge partnering with hair salons to help clean up oil spills has company officials tearing their hair out.

The release, written on Enbridge Northern Gateway letterhead, claims the company was launching a "My-Hair-Cares" initiative, which would use hair clippings solicited from over a thousand salons across North America, to create super-absorbant oil clean-up booms to mop up any spills from oil tankers, sailing through north coast waters to a tanker port planned for Kitimat.

Enbridge spokesperson Gina Jordan says that's completely false.

“My Hair Cares” is a hoax and makes light of a serious issue," says Jordan, adding "it is not an Enbridge or Northern Gateway initiative, and we don't appreciate this attempt to take advantage of public concern about the environment."

The Enbridge Northern Gateway proposal has drawn heated opposition from those fearing environmental disaster through oil spills along the propose pipeline itself, or from supertankers sailing to and from Kitimat.

The project is undergoing a regulatory review.