Written by Jess Rigg | Edited by Stephanie Hodgson
Green Salon Collective works to make the hair and beauty industry more sustainable through a number of different avenues, one of which is Research and Development. Our R&D department recently completed an Industry Audit Report on disposable salon towels, exploring hairdresser perspectives as well as comparing their environmental impacts with that of reusable towels.
We also had a blast creating fun educational content to share our key insights from the research as well as a list of eight recommendations for using salon towels more sustainably, whether you use disposables or reusables. See what we mean below:
After great interest from our members and the disposable salon towel companies alike in educating salons on a not very well understood topic, we’ve decided to undertake another year-long research project. This time, we’ll be focusing on the impact of chemicals, both to our health and the planet’s, as well as exploring ways to reduce chemical waste.
One of the brands we are collaborating with on this project is SmartMix, a company who helps salons to reduce chemical waste through the use of scales and their app which automatically determines the correct mix needed. From our longstanding partnership with SmartMix, we have learned how much hair dye (and money) is flushed down the drain every month due to over-calculating the amount of colour needed. Reducing colour waste will have an obvious positive impact on the environment and it will also save salons a large amount of money annually.
Our research into chemicals will focus on two key impact areas:
- Health and safety, covering both ingredients of products and hairdresser procedure and practices.
- Chemical waste, including causes of waste and how we can reduce and prevent it from happening in the first place.
We will be collaborating industry-wide to gather information for the report. We will speak to and learn from Green Salon Collective members, SmartMix and similar tech brands, product companies like BioCoiff, trade unions, hairdressing colleges and more to better understand what is currently being done and how we can improve best practices when it comes to chemicals.
We will share our findings with members and other hairdressing professionals so that they can make informed decisions about the products they purchase and use and how best to dispose of them when waste cannot be avoided. We may also be sending recommendations to product companies and salons on health and safety.
This project was developed by Stephanie Hodgson as part of her role as Head of Research and Development for GSC in collaboration with SmartMix and BioCoiff.