SCIENCE CLASS 06: the science of sustainability
Sustainability.
It’s such a buzzword these days. Who wouldn’t want to go green while renewing some part of their routine? We get it, sustainable beauty feels empowering, but the beauty industry, yeah, it’s a MAJOR contributor to why we’re even talking about sustainability in the first place.
We should warn you, this won’t be your run-of-the-mill sustainability conversation—it’s us after all. We want to have a new kind of conversation through the lens of hair; it’s what we know, it’s what we love, and it’s how we can make a meaningful impact. Let’s get to it.
Read Morethe truth about green beauty
The crisis of climate change has people rethinking their routines and reaching for planet-friendly products. Unfortunately, terms like ‘green’ and ‘clean’ beauty are not regulated, so brands can capitalize on this with greenwashing (conveying misleading information about their environmentally-friendly tactics) while driving overconsumption and waste. Ironic, right?
This narrative encourages multi-step routines you don’t need while claiming to be better for you + the planet. And with multi-step routines comes multitudes of waste. Think of all the non-recyclable lids, multi-layered boxes, and cellophane that ends up in our landfills and oceans. Yikes.
It’s time for a change in the way we think about beauty. Which leads us to our next point in the conversation, “organic” and natural ingredient-focused products.
Think about it this way: if your daily hair serum contains rose essential oil, that means 10,000 pounds of rose petals were extracted and discarded to produce just one 1 pound of rose oil, according to data collected from Byrdie. This puts a lot of strain on our natural resources like water, uses energy, and creates carbon emissions and waste, which isn’t sustainable.
biotech is the path forward
It’s about time we shake up our longtime reliance on cosmetic chemistry + traditional product development processes, which are resource heavy.
Instead of slowly righting the wrongs of poor ethics past, advancements in biotech production, can deliver the botanical benefits you love without straining our natural resources. Moving towards a world that can more heavily rely on biotech production will reduce waste and demand on an already taxed supply chain.
less is more for your hair + the planet
The biggest secret to a more sustainable future? Radical simplicity! Healthy hair needs less. Big beauty sells these false promises with a greenwashing spin, so you buy more than you need to. When you really think about it, one hair routine with up to 10 products is pretty heavy on resource consumption, which is not good for you, your hair, the planet, or your wallet.
A 10-step hair routine may disrupt hair + scalp’s natural balance with excess product usage. This stresses your hair, making it needier, requiring you to dump more product, energy, and time into taming it, and thus propelling the vicious cycle.
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In short: It’s a small step, but using products that understand the biology of your hair and deliver optimal hair health can mitigate the need for excess use of products, resources, energy, and waste. Call us crazy, but that sounds sustainable.
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