How to Go Green at the Hair Salon

Wondering how you can — or why you should —  go green at the hair salon? 

A trip to the hair salon can be such a treat. It’s a chance to get pampered, get a fresh new look, and take a little bit of a break.

But if you’re diligently trying to make healthy product choices, a visit to the hair salon has the potential to feel like a nightmare. Your hair can be lathered and slathered with all sorts of products. If you’re ultra-cautious about the ingredients in your products, it’s a strange feeling to let someone else choose what’s going on your hair – especially if it’s not safe.

You have two main options to choose from:

1. Freak out. Demand that safe products are used – or choose not to go to the salon at all.
2. If you don’t go to the salon very often, remind yourself that you don’t use these products all the time.

Or, you can choose a variation of those options.

For Accidentally Green reader Jill, she goes to the salon with her hair already washed. Not only is that a great frugal idea, but she can still use her own safe haircare products. As Jill shares, “All my stylist has to do is give my hair a cut and I am good to go!”

I try to schedule three or four haircuts a year, and then bear with getting exposed to products I would never dream of using in my own home (for good reason!). I stopped all coloring my hair eight years ago and stick to my natural curls, so my stylist only uses shampoo and styling products.

Green salons?

There’s good reason for concern. According to Scientific American, “Traditional hair dyes and many shampoos contain harmful synthetic chemicals that are routinely used on customers’ scalps—and then washed down the drain where they can accumulate in waterways, soils and even our bloodstreams.”

But the Scientific American article shares great news – as more and more people search for safe product choices, eco-friendly salons are becoming a hot commodity.

You can Google green salons – or, you might find a stylist who uses safe products. (Last month, this happened to me when my new stylist boasted how she was washing my hair with paraben-free shampoo … little did she know she was speaking my love language!)

If you don’t currently have an eco-friendly stylist or salon and it’s a big issue for you, keep searching.

The benefit of stylists

If your current stylist doesn’t use healthy products but you can’t bear the thought of parting with him or her, take your own products along with you. Your concern just may spark some eco-friendly or safety interest with your stylist.

Keeping your same stylist can be a huge benefit to you. The Chicago Tribune explored that sometimes long-time hair stylists can notice health issues before you or your doctor do. If you keep this mindset, you can begin to look at your trips to the salon as a bit of preventative medicine!

How do you go green at the hair salon?

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Hilary Kimes Bernstein

Hilary Kimes Bernstein is a Christ follower, wife, mama, and journalist. She writes about making healthy decisions that honor God and happen to help the environment at Accidentally Green. Short and sweet - like her writing - Hilary is the author of several healthy living eBooks.

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