Sustainability
Salons are historically big offenders when it comes to toxic pollutants and water usage, but things are changing and we're doing our part. Our efforts to become a more environmentally friendly sustainable salon include the following:
We recycle 100% of our hair color, chemical products, foils and hair though the Green Circle Salon Program. This program, combined with our city recycling program, gets us above our 95% recycling goal. Recycling salon chemicals isn’t cheap, but there are few very recycling centers in North America that handle hair color and other chemicals, along with foils, hair, PPE and other single use items. Salons that don’t recylce their color wash it down the drain into the water treatment plants that clean our drinking water, causing higher cleaning and electrical demands on treatment plants. Additionally, used hair foils with color and chemical residue in them aren't accepted by normal recycling facilities, because the foils have to be cleaned prior to recycling.
We using filtered water coolers and old fashioned glasses that we hand wash. No plastic water bottles or paper cups here.
We carry mostly organic product lines that feature recyclable/refillable packaging like glass, paper and foil with minimal plastic components.
We use about 70% less water than many salons through our EcoHeads shampoo nozzles.
Unfortunately we're still on city electricity and water. In downtown Austin, green power and recycled/gray water systems aren't normally available unless you own your building.
We're not a 100% sustainable salon yet and don't know of many salons in U.S. metropolitan areas that are, but we're not far off. And we're always on the lookout for new ways to become a more eco friendly salon.