Have you ever considered the environmental impact of hair care? Whether you love your hair or hate it, chances are you have a lot of hair products in your bathroom. Hair care is an often-overlooked area where some small changes to our habits can have a positive impact on the environment—not to mention simplifying life and saving money.

Are you ready to reduce the environmental impact of hair care? Here are 8 areas to consider.

Reduce or eliminate packaging

A simple first step is to scrutinize the packaging on all of your products.

If you can, make the switch to naked shampoo and conditioner bars. I’ve been using shampoo and conditioner bars for several years now and I love them. There are many excellent products on the market for all hair types.

Another option, if bars aren’t your thing, is to find a store where you can use your own containers and buy shampoo and conditioner in bulk. For local readers, Molloy’s is a bulk refill and soap supply store in Cambridge. And, The Body Shop now offers a refill service of many of their popular products. My daughters find conditioner bars don’t work for their long hair, so refills were a great discovery.

At the very least, make sure the products you buy are in recyclable packaging and recycle the containers instead of just tossing your empties in the trash.

Use fewer products

Have you ever done an audit of all the hair products you use? (Or even worse, the ones sitting on your bathroom shelf that you don’t use.) An easy way to reduce waste, and simplify your life, is to get rid of unnecessary products.

As you use up your current supplies, try eliminating one product at a time. You might be surprised to find that you don’t notice a difference. If you do notice a difference, look for natural alternatives that may do the trick.

As an example, I replaced my expensive frizzy hair treatment with coconut oil and never looked back. (For more uses for coconut oil, check out Coconut Oil – 1 Simple Product, 12 Beauty Hacks.)

Put away the styling tools

Heated styling tools like hairdryers, straighteners and curling irons can damage your hair over time. They also take up precious time, and use a lot of electricity.

Consider reducing the number of styling tools you use, or just using them less often. Do you really need to get them out every day?  

Wash your hair less often

Are you still in the habit of washing your hair every day? If you are, check out this carbon footprint calculator from Eco Hair and Beauty. Daily hair washing means you spend more time in the shower—using more water and more energy to heat that water, not to mention the cost and waste from using more hair product.

Unless you’re working in a greasy environment, or working up a major sweat on a daily basis, you probably don’t need to wash your hair every day. In fact, shampooing your hair too often can strip your hair of its natural oils.

I washed my hair every day for most of my life. A few years ago, I cut back to every other day, then twice a week. Nowadays, I wash my hair once a week.

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Avoid harmful ingredients

When you wash your hair, all the chemicals and ingredients from your hair products get flushed down the drain. These chemicals then enter our waterways, impacting marine life, and causing harm to many fragile ecosystems.

If you’re not in the habit of reading the ingredient list on your personal care products, start now. Choose products made with natural, biodegradable ingredients and don’t be fooled by words like natural and green in the product name. (For more information on what’s in your products, read Dirty dozen ingredients to avoid in cosmetics.)

Choose tools made from natural ingredients

Most hairbrushes and combs are made from plastic. When they break, we toss them in the trash and they end up in the landfill.

Next time you need to replace your hair tools and accessories, look for products made from natural fibres like wood or bamboo.

Learn to love your natural hair

I’m “blessed” with a mop of unruly, curly hair. For most of my life, I fought with my hair with limited success. Losing my hair during chemotherapy helped to reset my relationship with my hair. (Read more about that in the guest post I wrote for Smelly Socks and Garden Peas Lessons In Loss series.)

While I might not go as far as to say I love my natural hair, I do love spending less time and money on colour and hair products.

Is it time for you to rethink your relationship with your hair? It might be a positive change for you as well.

Ask your stylist about their practices

Finally, consider the environmental practices of your hair salon.

The next time you visit your hair stylist, ask them what steps they take to reduce the impact of their salon on the environment. What types of products do they use, promote, and sell? How do they manage the waste their salon generates? If you don’t like the answers, it might be time to make a switch.

With a few simple changes, you can reduce the environmental impact of your hair care routines. You might even find that you love your hair more if you spend less time and money on it.

Have you made any changes to simplify and reduce the environmental impact of your hair care routine? Tell us about them below.