/f/184757/600x600/9e4b2bdca8/img_2011-1.jpg)
One: Read The Labels
Many of us, when purchasing new hair care products, make the simple mistake of just assuming that every ingredient we put on our skin and hair is safe to use. In reality many drugstore products that are on the market today are filled with hidden chemical nasties that will be harming both the environment and yourself. It may be a little time consuming but doing the simple task of reading the labels can help you avoid the harmful chemicals. All these ingredients can be found on the back of the bottle. Each ingredient affects the hair in some way so it’s good to have an understanding of how each ingredient will impact your health and environment.
Ingredients to avoid include:
Phthalate - these are plastics that are added to products to help with the products shelf life.
Formaldehyde- these are commonly found in solvents.
Parabens - hormones disrupting preservatives which will cause problems for your hair including dehydration, colour fading, irritated scalp and even hair loss.
Two: Upcycle Or Reuse Your Empty Containers
Instead of throwing away your empties, think about how you can make use out of them. Upcycling is the process of turning unwanted items into something new and useful. For example, Davines came up with the idea of turning old conditioner tubs into cute, Upcycled plant pots. Another eco friendly option is to refill your empty bottles, at Mosaic we offer a refill service on our Essentials range. When you’ve used up all your shampoo and conditioner, bring your empty containers back and we will refill them for you. In return, to show our appreciation for your help we will offer you 10% off your products. Each year thousands of wasted plastic bottles get sent to landfill by doing something so little like this can really make a big difference.
Three: Spend Less Time Rinsing Your Conditioner
FACT TIME - did you know that if 50 people were to rinse their conditioner 10 seconds faster, 9000 litres of water would be saved… that’s a huge amount of water! Of course you need to ensure your hair is correctly conditioned and that you aren’t going to be left with greasy hair due to the lack of rinsing. However if you were to swap your conditioner for a quick rinse, eco friendly one this will massively cut the amount of water being wasted and in turn improve your carbon footprint.
Four: Buy Organic Products
One of the best ways to reduce your hair routine's carbon footprint is to invest in organic products. Going organic means you can guarantee no harmful chemicals have been used to increase the growing speed of the ingredients and that everything used is natural. There are many companies that base their business on being more sustainable, such as Davines. Davines make their packaging out of recycled goods, are vegan friendly and give back to the environment. You can identify a sustainable company by spotting this logo, this means that they are a business that meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance. They are community leaders and drive a global movement of people using business as a force for good.
Five: Experiment With Heartless Hairstyles
Our final tip is to take a break from using your hairdryer, not only will the condition of your hair improve but you will also be helping the environment by cutting down on the amount of electricity being used. Putting down the hairdryer will force you to find other ways of styling your hair without using the hot tools, there are so many great ways to style your hair without needing to use excessive heat and energy.
If we all make an effort to incorporate these little changes into our routine the improvement it could have is massive. There are now no excuses to be using excessive amounts of water, wasting plastic and also no reason to use our hairdryers. This won’t save the planet, but collectively we can help reduce the amount of damage we are doing.