I’m not going to lie to you, I’d never spent this much on a backpack before. But there were a number of things that went into deciding to bite the bullet and go for it and honestly, this is probably the best backpack I’ve ever owned. I bundled my backpack with a matching cord pouch for a discount and eagerly awaited its arrival.
Not knowing what kind of material to expect, I was pleasantly surprised at how sturdy it felt when it arrived. It feels like canvas, sturdy and ready to take a beating. Every zipper works perfectly, every seam is tight and solid, every pocket holds everything it’s supposed to and more. I’ve stuffed this thing full for flights, work, trade shows, and family outings. It’s done its job each time, and done it well.
I could gush half the day about why I love this backpack and this brand in general, but I won’t. I’ll tell you why I chose it and hope that when you need a new backpack, you also choose Day Owl.
Similar to Sanikind, Day Owl also creates jobs in Haiti collecting discarded waste. Did you know plastic can be used to make fabric? I hadn’t realized until shortly before finding Day Owl. Taking their planet first approach a step further, Day Owl is partnered with First Mile, the first step in the supply chain for a few companies, with an extremely rigorous and hands on approach to collecting waste.
And this time on myself! The main purpose of this post is to really document and highlight how much work really goes into color corrections, even ones that seem “simple,” and to stress how important it is to make sure you’re informed and prepared for what’s going to go into a correction.
The first thing you might wonder is what exactly makes something a color correction? At first thought, you may imagine someone who tried to lighten their hair at home by themselves and ended up with a tragedy. That’s absolutely one type of color correction, and one I’ve fixed more than once. Something you may not realize is definitely a color correction (even when the first color was done properly) is going from dark to light.
The journey from dark hair to light hair is one that must be undertaken with patience. I wrote about the basics of that journey here and also documented another major transformation I got to do late last year. Realistically any major color change needs to be approached as a correction, particularly once you get vibrant colors involved.
Let me tell you what we have going on today.
Starting a few months after having my daughter in 2019, I switched to a heavy highlight from an all over root touchup for my vivid colors for a softer line as it grew out and took me way longer than it should have to get back in. I maintained that for quite a while, and then got an urge to go back to being lighter all over.
The first thing I tried doing was removing my previous color. Thanks to an experiment I ran earlier this year testing out different reds, in addition to waiting too long like always between highlights, I had quite a challenge. The goal, for me, is always to get to an even canvas for fashion colors. That also tends to be a really nice silvery blonde. Stage 1, which I unfortunately don’t have any photos of, left me with a lot of banding. Serves me right for trying something new (looking at you, highlift color). Side, note, highlift color is actually a really great tool, but my starting level was too dark to get the results I needed, so really that was my fault. I left that session with one section on the top lifted a second time and covered with a bright orange, and a darker steely glaze on everything else.
I waited a while longer so it would fade out some, and tried to tone my problem areas myself. This was sort of a mixed bag. The toner did neutralize some of the brassy banding, buuuuuuuuut it also ended up way dark in some spots, so I caved and for simplicity’s sake (and my hair’s health) I glazed all of it with that darker blue color and called it a day. A few weeks later I put a green on everything just to keep some intentional looking color in there.
At the beginning of October, my suitemate was kind enough to apply lightener at my roots and DDL (Direct Dye Lifter) on my previous color so I could start seriously on this journey again.
As you can see, some progress was made. Had I been thinking about fully documenting from the beginning, I’d have had better pictures than showing fit and placement of my new hair clips. Two weeks later, I did another round of DDL on the ends, hoping to lift the color more. It’s really hard to tell, but there is some difference between that first application and the second, pictured below.
Giving it a few more days to rest and do some treatments, I went back in with lightener from about an inch away from my scalp through the ends, let it sit about 5 minutes, applied to my scalp, waited another 15-20 minutes before washing it out and applying a toner to my somewhat damp hair. Was this the best thing to have done to my hair? Probably not, I definitely had some breakage because I forgot the Olaplex at the salon and did this myself at home. But I was also able to cut off a lot of the damage myself, and I’m a lot closer to my original goal, which means I probably have to make up my mind on a color soon.
The other big piece of this is the time commitment involved. That first session of root lift and DDL took just under 2 hours from start to finish, and that was without a true toner. The second application of DDL on just my ends was another hour. That last session with a targeted lightener application and a full toner? Another almost 3 hours. To have gone from the first picture to the last picture in a salon would have been easily a 6-8 hour process, assuming my hair could handle all of that work in one visit (spoiler, it couldn’t), and this wasn’t an overly complicated process in the grand scheme of color corrections.
This is why any major color change needs to start with a consultation. It’s important to me that we’re both on the same page as far as the results you can expect based on your budget, and also based on your starting point and the amount of maintenance you feel like you can handle.
When I was growing up, the second Monday in October was called Columbus Day because allegedly this guy comes in and “discovers” a continent where people were already living. Since the arrival of European colonizers, the people indigenous to North America have been repeatedly taken advantage of and systematically oppressed, along with pretty much every group of color.
Starting in 1992, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus “discovering” America, Indigenous People’s Day was officially instituted in Berkeley, California. Numerous counter-celebrations led up to this moment, and it was soon adopted as an official holiday by other places. As of October 11, 2021, it’s an officially recognized holiday in 13 states; and 2021 marks the first time that a US President gives formal acknowledgment to the holiday.
Indigenous People’s Day is but one of so many holidays that have pretty dark origins in general, not to mention the amount of whitewashing that was done in regards to the real story – along with other colonizer holidays (looking at you, Thanksgiving).
The internet is a wealth of knowledge and resources in helping you learn more about problematic holidays. Illuminatives has a wonderful toolkit to help you advocate in your area, and in general. Learning for Justice is also an amazing wealth of resources for personal, classroom, and professional settings looking to expand their education. The Conversation has a list of good books to start your education with as well.
Please see the list directly below for links to donate to Indigenous Peoples. Some links also feature further education on the holiday itself. I personally donated to the Warrior Women Project.
What started as a combined search effort to be both lower waste as well as not have to carry a big jug of detergent back and forth when I needed to do the laundry at work led me to discover Kind Laundry. Are laundry detergent sheets a new thing? Somewhat. Is Kind the only company that makes them? Not by a long shot, they’re just the ones I’ve found and really like.
What are some of the things that make Kind Laundry different? Well for starters their sheets are made up of only 5 ingredients: Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (plant-derived cleaning agent), Fatty Alcohol Polyglycol Ether (biodegradable grease remover), Polyvinyl Alcohol (biodegradable polymer), Tea Seed Oil (cleaner and degreaser), and Deionized Water. If you choose the Ocean Breeze scented sheets, there’s an additional ingredient: fragrance.
Other things that I love about Kind Laundry are that they take up significantly less space than a bottle of detergent, the ingredients are all plant based and simple, the packaging is entirely recyclable, they’re completely cruelty free, and being a pre-measured sheet makes it incredibly simple to just toss and wash and not worry about over measuring (thus creating more waste). The sheets are also effective cleansers, which is important because if a product doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter how many of the other boxes it ticks off because it’s just a gimmick.
These sheets have replaced our detergent both in the salon and at my house. I bought a 3 pack for the salon in March of 2021 and as of October 2021, we still haven’t even finished the 1st box. At my house we’ve gone through a few boxes, but with a toddler and a mechanic husband, I think my household does a little more laundry than the salon does. Speaking of my mechanic husband, he’s also been happy with the results we’ve gotten from the detergent sheets, which is a good thing because his work clothes tend to need a little extra love.
In the salon I only use the unscented option, but at home I use both the unscented and the ocean breeze scents. I do like when my laundry has *some* sort of a smell to it, but I don’t need it to be something that can be detected from across the room and I think this one hits the nail on the head. If you’re looking to make the switch to detergent sheets, I can’t say enough good things about these ones.
You can also check out the discounts page to find other retailers you may enjoy!
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MUD/WTR has a really weird name. I know. And yet, I enjoy it immensely. What is it exactly? The short version is it’s a coffee replacement beverage but really you can drink it anytime you want. Since it doesn’t have a high caffeine content, it’s delightful any time of the day.
MUD\WTR™ is a coffee alternative made with organic ingredients lauded by cultures young and old for their health and performance benefits.
With 1/7th the caffeine as a cup of coffee, you get focus, energy and immunity without the jitters, crash and dependency. Mud fuels your morning ritual in a way that would make Spartans smile and Buddha proud.
What’s in it, you ask?
Cacao, Masala chai, Turmeric, Himalayan salt, Cinnamon,
If you had asked me even 6 months ago if I’d give up my coffee for something with “mud” in the name I’d have told you you were probably losing your marbles. I’ve been a daily coffee drinker for years. One of my favorite mugs boasts that I love you more than coffee, just not before coffee. But as we age, sometimes we have to reevaluate what we’re doing with our lives. My husband and I sat down and started really evaluating our diets and what we were putting into our bodies.
I promise you I’m not going to launch into anything about gut health and how you need to immediately change everything about what you’re doing. I also want to reiterate that I have absolutely nothing against anybody who’s taken such a keen interest for themselves and changed their routines accordingly.
This was also right about the time that I took a food sensitivity test from Everlywell and discovered that apparently, most of the things I love to eat are also causing potentially negative reactions within my body. That led to a somewhat fascinating deep dive where I realized that a reaction to food didn’t have to show itself only in the digestive tract; it can manifest as most of the same symptoms as my ADD, depression, and anxiety – not to mention some of the other auto-immune issues that seem to run in my family. Could some of those things be reduced just by changing my diet? It was time to find out. One of the first things I cut way back on was caffeine in the form of coffee.
MUD/WTR was the first thing that wasn’t just tea that I tried as a replacement for coffee. My first thoughts were that it tasted like a hollow chai tea or something like that. Like, it had a flavor but it still felt like hot water instead of a beverage to me. I experimented around with how I wanted to use it. I know the kit came with a booklet with recipe suggestions and there’s some all over the MUD/WTR website as well, but I’ll be honest; I don’t have time or energy most days to make a smoothie to add it into and I still don’t really eat breakfast (I know that’s something I should work on as well). So I either drink it straight or I add a teabag when I’m done mixing mine up.
I started my MUD journey with one of their intro kits that came with a 30 serving tin, a sample of the creamer, a rechargeable frother, a booklet, and some stickers. For me, it was worth it just to get the little frother thing. I don’t remember exactly when I bought it or how many times I’ve used it, but I can tell you I haven’t had to charge it yet. As someone who doesn’t use creamer in the first place, I can take or leave the included creamer. It works, it blends right in, I just don’t care for creamer in my tea or coffee.
Since I already had the nice tin that holds 30 servings and the fun frother, when it was time to refill I went with the 90 serving refill pouch but also treated myself to a box of the single serving on the go pouches.
But, Sam, did it actually make that big of a difference, you ask?
Everybody’s results will vary, as is the case with most things like this, but for me, I think it did. With coffee I would get a big boost of energy and focus that would disappear about the same time as my medication at the time in the early afternoon, leading me to pretty much be done with the day no matter what. I’d end up napping, or having another cup of coffee and then issues sleeping later on. With MUD I don’t feel like it gives me the same initial amount of energy and focus, but I do feel like it lasts me longer and also fades away nicer. I’ve noticed on the days I start with MUD I don’t have the same afternoon fog of “ok so now what” that I do with coffee.
MUD/WTR is definitely something I recommend trying if it’s in your budget, and it helps me out even more if you purchase it through this link, or any of the links above.
You can also check out the discounts page to find other retailers you may enjoy!
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I don’t talk about this anywhere near as much as I should. It required some follow up on my end with the website, but I am fully registered at Strands for Trans!
If you haven’t heard of this site before, you should definitely familiarize yourself. Their mission is to create inclusive and safe environments across the globe for members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Being in my own salon space gives me the liberty to really create the salon environment I want, and that’s one of inclusivity and kindness. Every person deserves to feel comfortable in their own skin and hair is one of the number one ways to do that. I have always been honored to be a part of people’s hair journeys as they discover who they are and bring that vision to life. That will never change. You are safe with me and you are safe in my space. ♥️🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈♥️
Folks… we did it! We’ve officially filled our first box to send back to Green Circle for recycling!!! I have no idea how much it actually weighs but I had a hard time lugging it through the salon building to my suite for its scheduled pickup today.
Everything in that box would have ended up in a landfill, and we kept it out. Everything in there will find new life as something else or by creating power that we can use to keep working and making you beautiful. I’m proud of us but more importantly I’m thankful for all of you who joined me on this waste reduction journey.
As a bonus, check out this delightful loaf of hair and the bag I lugged to my car yesterday. There are about two of those bags worth of things inside the box being picked up.
Thank you for being on this journey with me. I couldn’t have done it without you ❤️
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Fair warning to those who may be affected, I will be discussing my feelings on termination of pregnancies. If you’re someone who is unwilling or unable to acknowledge a position other than the traditional “pro-life” stance, this may not be the post for you.
I’m going to start with a post that I’ve copied from Facebook. It rings true for a lot of people and I think is a good segue into the “conversation” I got into a few days back about the topic. For anybody who may not have seen it, it goes something like this:
This:
I’m not pro-murdering babies.
I’m pro-Becky who found out at her 20-week anatomy scan that the infant she had been so excited to bring into this world had developed without life sustaining organs.
I’m pro-Susan who was sexually assaulted on her way home from work, only to come to the horrific realization that her assailant planted his seed in her when she got a positive pregnancy test result a month later.
I’m pro-Theresa who hemorrhaged due to a placental abruption, causing her parents, spouse, and children to have to make the impossible decision on whether to save her or her unborn child.
I’m pro-little Cathy who had her innocence ripped away from her by someone she should have been able to trust and her 11-year-old body isn’t mature enough to bear the consequence of that betrayal.
I’m pro-Melissa who’s working two jobs just to make ends meet and has to choose between bringing another child into poverty or feeding the children she already has because her spouse walked out on her.
I’m pro-Brittany who realizes that she is in no way financially, emotionally, or physically able to raise a child.
I’m pro-Emily who went through IVF, ending up with SIX viable implanted eggs requiring selective reduction to ensure the safety of her and a SAFE number of fetuses.
I’m pro-Jessica who is FINALLY getting the strength to get away from her physically abusive spouse only to find out that she is carrying the monster’s child.
I’m pro-Vanessa who went into her confirmation appointment after YEARS of trying to conceive only to hear silence where there should be a heartbeat.
I’m pro-Lindsay who lost her virginity in her sophomore year with a broken condom and now has to choose whether to be a teenage mom or just a teenager.
I’m pro-Courtney who just found out she’s already 13 weeks along, but the egg never made it out of her fallopian tube so either she terminates the pregnancy or risks dying from internal bleeding.
You can argue and say that I’m pro-choice all you want, but the truth is:
I’m pro-life.
Their lives.
Women’s lives.
You don’t get to pick and choose which scenarios should be accepted.
It’s not about which stories you don’t agree with. It’s about fighting for the women in the stories that you do agree with and the CHOICE that was made.
Women’s rights are meant to protect ALL women, regardless of their situation!
It’s been nonstop in my newsfeed lately. Quite frankly, the law itself is appalling. The short version is that to work around separation of church and state, private citizens have been empowered to inform on and sue anybody who might be planning a termination of pregnancy. If there’s a heartbeat, you cannot have a doctor end your pregnancy regardless of the reasons. There are a lot of very valid reasons somebody may need an abortion, and aside from the fact that none of it is my business because it doesn’t involve my body, an overwhelming majority of people aren’t seeking abortions because that’s what they’re using for birth control.
I don’t need to use the person’s real name, but I thought this conversation was worth sharing. It went something like this. And by “something like this” I mean I copied and pasted it word for word and removed the person’s name.
Other Person: “Every time you have sex you have the possibility of being pregnant. Responsibility is on you to protect yourself during intercourse. If you don’t want to have children don’t have sex.”
Me: “Fun Facts! – people can get pregnant from rape! This is the exact opposite of choosing to have sex. – people can take all the right choices to prevent pregnancy and have birth control fail, resulting in a pregnancy that wasn’t wanted. They were utilizing the responsibility you suggested, but it didn’t work. – people in committed long term relationships shouldn’t be forced to be abstinent just because they don’t want children at that time – people can know that parenting isn’t the life journey for them and shouldn’t be forced into abstinence because of that – some people cannot physically bring a pregnancy to term without risking their own lives but doctors refuse to allow them to pursue permanent birth control options because of personal reasons and beliefs the doctors are imposing on their patients – birth defects that are incompatible with life will never be detected before 6 weeks. They often aren’t caught until 12 weeks at the earliest and sometimes not until as late as 30 weeks. I fully support your right to choose how to proceed with your own body but I personally could not emotionally handle having to carry a child to term that I knew was going to perish shortly after or not even make it to being born – education on responsibly preventing unwanted pregnancies is quite often purposefully neglected, particularly in areas that want to ban all abortions. We can take another post to really delve into the perpetuated cycle of poverty this usually leads to and how teaching “abstinence only” has repeatedly failed time and time and time again, if you’d like.
OP: “….. plan B, perhaps?”
Me: “fun fact: also not 100% effective and also not readily available or accessible to those who need it.”
OP: “PROTECTION!!??!!”
Me: “see my above mention of birth control failing, as well as not being easily or readily accessible.”
OP: “so when does life begin? Do you believe in God? Or do you believe you are God?”
Me: “Ok, I’ll play this game with you. I’m actually really happy you asked that. Buckle up.
Do I believe in God? That might be a tricky answer. I believe that the foundation of pretty much all religions was to treat each other with kindness. I don’t need to make a declaration to follow one single deity in order to live my life with kindness and extend that kindness to others.
Do I believe I am God? Of course not. I would never presume to be any kind of deity or to operate under the assumption that I have any right to tell someone how to live their life or that I know everything that goes into the decisions somebody might be making.
Even if we ignore very well documented evolution across millions of years and look at how God flooded the entire world because he didn’t like the choices that humanity made after he gave them the ability to make choices, Jesus wanted us to treat each other with kindness and empathy. I’m curious where in the Bible God says that we should let children starve, or be beaten and abused, or otherwise neglected, just because they happen to have been born. When Jesus said to love one another and help the poor and feed the hungry, where was the asterisk that said that only some people were deserving of this treatment?
Dictionary.com defines the separation of church and state as “The principle that government must maintain an attitude of neutrality toward religion. Many view separation of church and state as required by the First Amendment. The First Amendment not only allows citizens the freedom to practice any religion of their choice, but also prevents the government from officially recognizing or favoring any religion.” I could be misinterpreting this, but to me it sounds like I don’t have the right to tell you how to live your life if your religion differs from mine, and that you also don’t have the right to impose your religious beliefs on other people who may not share the same ones you have.
When does life begin? That might be another tricky one to answer. “6 weeks pregnant” on paper is actually 4 weeks post conception. How many “weeks pregnant” you are is documented by your previous menstrual cycle and not by when conception actually occurred. Do you know what else the baby has developed by the time you’re 6 weeks pregnant? Pretty much nothing else. Baby is still less than the size of a quarter. There’s no neural activity or anything else that typically gets qualified as “life.”
There is a difference between having basic biological functions and really truly being alive. There’s more that makes up “life “ than simply having a heartbeat and potentially functioning organs. At what point does the quality of the life in question come into play? At what point is it really more beneficial to just be a breathing body with no regard to the surrounding environment and what actually qualifies you or I to make that decision for someone? What about all of the kids in the very broken foster system that didn’t ask to be born? At what point can the planet we call home no longer sustain human life because instead of focusing on caring for the lives that were already here, we focused our efforts on the lives yet to be born? How can we channel all that anti-abortion passion masquerading as “pro life” into actions that are actually pro lives?
Are you married? If you found out tomorrow that you were pregnant with a child that would likely kill you to carry to term, can you positively tell me that you’d keep it no matter what? If you found out tomorrow that getting pregnant would more than likely be life threatening to you, can you honestly tell me that you would without hesitation become celibate to completely prevent any chance you might have of a pregnancy that would be detrimental to your health? Would your husband also be joining you on your journey of celibacy to ensure that you didn’t get pregnant with a child that could end your life by carrying it to term?
At what point are you yourself actually trying to be God by making these decisions for other people, or by supporting the people who are making these decisions?”
Much to my overall sadness, but to no surprise at all, this person declined to continue this conversation. They even declined to respond in the following interaction as well.
Other Person: “I for one am proud of people who carry their babies to term and have their child adopted.”
Me: “I’m attaching a good resource to start your research into the adoption and foster care system. You sound like you clearly have extra love to give for all of these children, so I’m sure that you’d want to do everything you could to help the lives that currently need it. ❤️
There’s a separate organization raising money to donate to Planned Parenthood. If you want to support this cause financially, please visit Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with more resources I can include. If you disagree with me, that’s your right to your opinion, and I won’t be engaging with “hate mail.” You will not change my stance on this and there are more productive ways to expend your energy.
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I like to think I’ve generally been careful throughout the whole pandemic. During such unprecedented times it’s hard to know what the “right” choice really is, or even if there’s one at all. Are you ready for this rollercoaster with me?
It starts on Sunday, August 15. I’ve already canceled my plans to see the Hella Mega Tour at Wrigley Field, and the friend joining us from Texas has long since canceled her family’s flight. Somewhere around 2am I hear my daughter coughing from her bed next to mine. (That’s another long story, the short version is that her toddler bed is next to my adult bed and it works just fine for us). It’s that unmistakeable burping cough associated with, you guessed it, vomiting!
This continues every 1-3 hours for the entire day. It got significantly harder to clean up once we started really trying to push fluids and anything she would consume just to make sure that her tiny body had some fuel in it. Naturally, we knew we wanted a Covid test, and not just because it was a requirement for returning to daycare. Earlier in the pandemic I had also been testing regularly just as a precaution, and this made me feel like it might be a good idea to return to that. So, on Monday August 16, the two of us got separate Covid tests that both ended up coming back negative.
Now let’s move on to Wednesday. Daughter has mostly been vomit free, but let one loose around 1:30 or 2 that morning. On my journey to grab a towel, I realize my husband isn’t in bed and is instead on the couch. Figuring he probably thought I was stealing the blankets or something I left it alone and went back to bed. There’s no emergency, I don’t need to wake him up just to ask why he chose to sleep on the couch. When she and I wander out of the bedroom closer to 8 to start the day, he lets me know he’s not feeling well and feels like he couldn’t get warm and that was why he was on the couch bundled up. I’m feeling fine, so I send him back to bed and work on figuring out what she wants to eat. Before long, I’m not feeling super hot either. But I’m functional and keep at it.
Well I made it to about 2 that afternoon before I tapped out thanks to having caught whatever my lovely child (who also sometimes refuses to drink her own water because apparently she just *needs* to have mine) has previously been experiencing. There was a lot of tablet time for her Wednesday. And Thursday. Thursday the 19th my husband and I decide to go get Covid tests for ourselves out of an abundance of caution. We haven’t been around anybody who’s been sick at all, let alone positive for Covid that we were aware of, and it isn’t the first time she’s gotten sick after being at daycare since she only goes one day a week and just started a few months ago.
We generally keep to ourselves that weekend but still need to return to work on Monday August 23. He’s able to distance himself from his coworkers fairly easily and I always wear my mask while I’m at work and sanitize in between clients. So imagine my surprise when we get our results at 10pm that night and his is negative, but my test was positive.
I don’t know if I can adequately express the emotional roller coaster of panic and anxiety that followed seeing that result. I (thought I) did everything right. We got our vaccines in March and April. We never stopped wearing masks in public. Our 2 year old wears her mask well and knows how to adjust it if it starts falling down. I clean at work. We don’t really see many people and 95% of the people we do are vaccinated, with the minority really just being kids too young to be vaccinated yet. Where did I go wrong? Why just my test? Why did my test from the previous Monday come back negative but this one from Thursday was positive? That didn’t seem right given the rest of the factors.
Luckily for me my husband is a pretty calm and collected guy, so he talked me back off my proverbial ledge. I found a clinic that did both rapid and PCR tests and walked in first thing Tuesday morning. As soon as the rapid antigen test came back negative I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and then got to work calling clients. As confident as I may have been that that PCR test was going to come back negative, I still need to treat any positive test result with the respect it deserves and even though I didn’t have all the information yet it wasn’t right for me to sit on it for an extra few days. Being vaccinated it’s of course possible that I was truly infected and the vaccine kept me from shedding virus for more than a few days. It could have been a false positive. But it wasn’t for me to make that decision for my clients or anybody else that I had been in contact with or may have contact with.
After being on edge waiting for results for a few days, I woke up to results on Thursday morning. NEGATIVE!!!!! Another huge sigh of relief to be able to update all of the people I had talked to and then inform anybody who was on my books through the weekend to let them decide for themselves how they wanted to proceed.
I’m not really here with a cautionary tale. I’m not trying to scare anyone, even though these are some scary times right now. It doesn’t seem fair that some people who never took a single precaution and don’t wear masks and hang out in large groups never got sick or spread anything and in my two friend groups it’s literally only ever been me to give them cause to worry.
But I know that the vaccines work, and I know that the masks work, and I know that cleaning works. I know that it’s still right for me to do all of those things. Could I have said nothing and had everything still turn out just fine? This time, sure. I feel like that’s a fairly significant part of why and how this virus has spread so much in the first place.
Keep being safe. Keep wearing your masks. I’ll see you soon.
I’m so excited to be a part of Green Circle Salons. Being on my own has given me a wonderful opportunity to be incredibly mindful of how my actions and products impact not only the guests in my chair but also the planet we live on.
What exactly does it mean when I tell you I’m Green Circle Certified?
The short version is that it means I collect all of the excess materials from my salon that would otherwise go in the garbage and send them to Green Circle to be repurposed into something else?
What exactly am I collecting?
In the salon I collect the hair, excess color, wax sticks, processing caps, foils, color tubes and bottles, developer bottles, and just about anything else that gets used behind the chair. That even includes the empty products that I use on you when we style your hair.
Do you know what else I can collect?
PPE! Disposable masks and gloves that you use during your day to day activities can be brought with you to your salon appointment and deposited into my PPE collection box, which will go back to Green Circle when it’s full.
Your plastic grocery bags!
Your outdated or broken home styling tools!
Empty aerosol cans!
Empty salon product bottles! Plastics #1-7 are all able to be processed by Green Circle.
What is this going to cost you, and me as a salon?
Green Circle recommends adding $1-2 to every transaction as a way to offset costs. This will be included in an upcoming price adjustment for services going live in January 2022 (more to be announced later on).
While you aren’t obligated to offset these costs for me, should you wish to do so here are the ways you can donate:
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