Beauty industry getting greener

Asmall group of hairsalon and spa owners is spearheading an attempt to green up the beautyindustry.

For Brian Phillips, owner of Toronto-based worldSALON, the decision to become more environmentally conscious was personal. In 1993, he developed a serious case of contact dermatitis between his fingers, causing them to crack and bleed. He said it was probably triggered by several products he was in contact with on a regular basis, including perm solution.

He stopped doing perms and started to read up on the environment, becoming more conscious about products and energy use.

Phillips helped develop a new line of beauty supplies worldPRODUCTSthat are free of artificial colours, fragrances and parabens, chemicals that are used as preservatives in cosmetics and toiletries.

"I think everybody can either have a positive effect or a negative effect, depending on what approach they take," said Phillips, who is also a nominee for the first annual Green Circle Award for Environmental Stewardship being presented this weekend in Toronto at the Mirror Awards, honouring Canadian hairdressers, stylists, salons and spas.

"I decided that I wanted to run my business as sustainably as possible and effect as much positive change with the clients that we have here as possible."

Another Toronto-based company is helping salon and spa owners who want to become greener.

Green Circle Salons facilitates the pickup of hair, foils, colour tubes, plastics and papers to divert them from landfills and into repurposing and recycling solutions.

Company president Shane Price estimates that more than 1,700 kilograms of such waste has been diverted.

The company is also working with biologists at the University of Guelph in Ontario to find uses for hair in farming.

Price said there hasn't been an industry-wide approach to help salons and spas reduce their impact on the environment.

"I do know from speaking with salon owners that there's a gap," he said. "There's something that's been missing in an industry that is built around creating beauty."

The greening of the salon and spa industry isn't solely in the territory of tending to tresses it also extends to nail care.

When vegetarians Erin Shum and her mother opened She to Shic Boutique Beauty Lounge in Vancouver last fall, they decided to find products that were organic, vegan or eco-friendly.

They use SpaRitual, a vegan line of polishes without synthetic dyes, formaldehyde and toluene, a colourless, flammable liquid obtained from coal tar or petroleum that is used as a solvent in nail lacquers. They also avoid using acrylic nails.

As for hair care, it's basically shampoo and styling, with no cuts, perms, colouring or dyes.

Shum said she wants to make people more conscious of what they're using on their bodies and putting out into the environment.

"We want people to be aware that you can have beauty without compromising."