Feature
GREEN HAIR EXTENSIONS:
THE ROAD TO A HEALTHIER,
GREENER, HEAD OF HAIR
Note From The Editor: This article was originally
published in our July 2016 issue. As our magazine
has grown tremendously, we wanted to reshare a
few of the great pieces that have gotten lost in our
backlog. We’ve made a few updates to ensure the
information is still up-to-date, but for the most part,
everything was as relevant then as it is now.
When we think of going green we often think about
turning off lights and buying organic produce,
but do we think about our hair extensions? We
hadn’t. When we started to think about our green
issue and the impact of the hair industry on the
environment, we had a lot of questions, not all
of which we could find answers to. Like most
industries, the hair industry is one that hasn’t quite
gone green. Whether it’s the use of manufactured
chemicals to create synthetic hair or the cleansing
and conditioning agents used to prep human hair,
there are a lot of areas where hair extensions are
exceptionally un-green. That said, it’s not entirely
bad news; there are several advancements we’ll
talk about in this article that show changes are
coming.
42 C O S M O B I Z
M A G A Z I N E
There are several different elements to the
ecological impact of synthetic hair. First, synthetic
hair is produced just as it sounds–synthetically.
This means that it requires the use and manufacture
of chemicals that aren’t necessarily green, and
production creates fumes. Another issue is that since
so much of hair production goes undocumented it’s
hard to say what the true environmental impact of
hair extension production is. Even if we choose to
believe that production occurs without the creation
of chemical and material waste, there is no current
way for hair to be manufactured without some kind
of waste, whether that’s physical refuse, chemical
runoff, or air pollution.
With human hair, it’s a slightly better story; some of
the high-end extensions use a fruit-based acid to
clean the hair. This method, although we can not be
clear on whether or not it is done sustainably and
with environmental factors in mind, has a natural
basis and is far less damaging. With lesser-quality
extensions where several layers of the cuticle must
be removed, a stronger chemical must be used.
The disposal of these chemicals once used is
where the main concern lies. Since they are used
in large quantities they could have very negative
impacts on the local and global environment.