Sustainable Hair Care
Shout out to two awesome hair dressing salons in the Mackay region doing great things for the environment – Hustle & Flo and Intuition The Art of Hair…
Hair care is crazy big business.
According to statistics, in 2019 almost 74,000 people were employed as hairdressers in Australia and it seems there’s a hair salon (or two) on nearly every street – I did a google search for hairdressers in Mackay and stopped counting when I got to 60!
In 2019 hair services were the most common paid for service in the beauty industry by women in Australia and in 2021, the global hair care market generated approximately 84.4 billion U.S. dollars, which explains the whole aisle dedicated to shampoo, conditioners, hair colours, styling creams, gels and sprays in the supermarkets!
When you consider the use of dyes, bleaches and solvents and the air pollution those chemicals produce, plus the water and energy use and the waste from packaging, foils, and other disposable equipment used in getting your hair done, it’s no surprise that the hair care industry isn’t exactly an environmentally friendly one. In fact, over 400,000 kilos of hair and 1.5 million kilos of metal waste (think foils!) is being sent to landfill every year in Australia.
How I Greened Up My Hair Care
Over the years, like most, I’ve dabbled with hair colour and length. I’ve been blonde, various shades of brown and for a while even an unintended shade of orange! I’ve had short hair, really short hair, long hair and permed hair and had a whole cupboard dedicated to my hair in the bathroom. I’ve used hairspray, mousse, styling gel, wax, root lifter, dry shampoo and numerous other products to keep my hair in place. I had a brush to use when I was blow drying, one for styling and one for brushing. I had clips and head bands and hair ties.
And then I didn’t.
It’s been a gradual process, but since starting Healthy Clean and Green in 2017 I’ve completely simplified my hair care which while having a positive impact on the environment has also saved me time and money.
First, I stopped colouring my hair. At the time, I was reassessing our family budget and looking at where I could save some dollars, so originally, it was a money thing and not an environmental thing. However, as time went on and I overhauled my home and personal care products; ditching harsh chemicals, looking for low waste options and better choices, it just became something that I didn’t want to do any more.
Then I made the decision to keep my hair short. It wasn’t a light bulb moment by any means and I’m not saying that I will never grow my hair ever again. But short hair works for me in lots of ways. It’s quick and easy to do. It’s cooler in summer. I don’t need hair ties or clips or three different types of brushes and a shampoo bar lasts me a really long time!
Keeping my hair short has lead me to ditching almost all my hair products too. This wasn’t something I planned either… I just stopped replacing products and then I had none left… and I didn’t miss them!
These days, all I use on my hair at home is a shampoo bar, a bamboo brush and occasionally the hair straightener. I let my hair air dry and as I get closer to my next haircut, I’ll run the hair straightener through my fringe because as it gets lengthy it kinks like crazy! I still get my hair cut in a salon and while I’ve been going to the same salon for about 12 years, learning more about the Sustainable Salon program is what lead me to ‘cheat’ on my current hairdresser (the guilty is crazy!) and pop into Hustle & Flo a few weeks ago..
How the Sustainable Salon Program Works
In 2010, Paul Frasca, a hairdresser and Ewelina Soroko, a sustainable fashion guru, embarked on a 4 month trip around Australia in the name of waste research. After visiting 160 salons they discovered that salon waste was a huge environmental problem and decided to do something about it. Five years later, in 2015, they launched Sustainable Salons - a salon recycling program that collects and diverts 95% of salon materials away from landfill! How freaking fabulous!!!
As a member of the sustainable salons program; salons are provided with bins to separate their chemicals, cut hair, metals, paper, plastics, and full ponytails into for collection.
Once collected by the program:
Plastics are cleaned and upcycled into new products.
Metals (including foil) and paper are sold for recycling, and the proceeds are donated to OzHarvest and KiwiHarvest to provide meals for hungry people.
Hair from the salon floor is stuffed into stockings to make Hair Booms that are used to clean up oil spills along our coastlines.
Ponytails (20cm or longer) are distributed to charitable organisations to create wigs for those suffering from cancer or alopecia.
Chemicals are sent to chemical recycling plants where they’re neutralised and turned into recycled water.
Customers pay a $3 Sustainable Salons Fee on top of the cost of their service and this goes toward supporting a range of important sustainability and community initiatives:
40% – Resource collection and redirection
25% – Implementing green practices
20% – Supporting the community
10% – Researching recycling solutions
5% – Awareness and education
Call to Action!
It says on the Sustainable Solutions website “We believe that we’re all responsible for the ethical disposal of any waste produced by a product or service we choose to consume.” and I totally agree!!
I’m not suggesting that you green up your hair care routine as radically as I have and I’m not even suggesting that you jump ship and move to a new hairdresser… but I would love love love it, if you would start a conversation with your current hairdresser and ask them to consider becoming a sustainable salon!
Remember I said I stopped counting at 60 salons in the Mackay area? Only two of them are currently on the Sustainable Salon list. ☹ As a community, imagine the difference we could make to the environment if we got them all onboard diverting waste through the sustainable salon program!
Our small changes will create a huge impact for the better…