Greening the hair industry

Hair clippings from Luca Hair Studio in Trail are being repurposed into oil booms

Stacey Chartres is the manager of the Luca Hair Studio in Trail. — Krista McPhee photo

Green hair? Well, not quite. But the Luca Hair Studio in Trail has become a sustainable hair salon that works to make its clients and the planet more beautiful. It is reducing its salon waste by 85 to 95 per cent.

“We are only a week into it and so far have only had one bag of garbage in all that time,” said Stacey Chartres, manager of the Luca Hair Studio. “In the past, we were throwing away one bag a day.”

The waste stream of hair salons includes hair clippings, foils, colour tubes, and excess chemicals and colours. All these waste items are separated and shipped to a warehouse in Vancouver.

The hair clippings are repurposed into oil booms by stuffing them into nylon tubes. Hair has the same properties as animal fur or feathers, which makes it ideal for oil spill cleanups.

The booms are made by non-violent female offenders in the BC Corrections system, who are paid for this meaningful work. And in the event of a large-scale oil spill on the West Coast, the booms will be on hand and ready for use. Moreover, these same women could be trained in haz-mat oil spill remediation, so that they could be first responders on the scene.

Started in 2009 in Toronto, Green Circle Salons is the founding organization that is promoting beauty salons to turn green by dramatically reduce landfill waste. The movement has grown quickly to hundreds of salons across North America and has generated interest from salons around the world. Green Circle’s goal is to make the Canadian salon industry sustainable by 2020.

“We are really excited about this program,” said Chartres, “and hoping to inspire other salons to get on board.”