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When people outside of the AAPI community think about Asian hair, they typically jump straight to imagining someone of East Asian descent with a thick, dark, straight curtain of hair. 
And yet – the Asian diaspora spans 48 countries. When you stop to consider that it covers half the globe and includes billions of people in its numbers, why would anyone believe they all look alike?
Asian people have very different complexions, even within the same regional area. Asian hair might be thick, fine, wavy, stick-straight, curly, or any combination. 
Just as there is no “standard” Asian person, there is no “traditional” Asian hair. It’s important to combat stereotypes and acknowledge the diversity throughout Asian communities. 
So in celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, we spoke with women in our Hairstory community to hear their hair stories and clear up some common misconceptions about Asian hair. <h3>Myths and Misconceptions about Asian Hair </h3>
The most common misconceptions about Asian hair stem from what we described above: people tend to envision only one type of Asian person. Some of the most common include: <ul><li>All Asian hair is black. While many Asians have dark-colored hair, some have shades of brown, red, or even blonde hair, the latter being most common among Hmong and Mongolian populations. </li><li>Asian hair is thick. As you’ll see in the following hair stories, plenty of Asian people have hair that’s on the finer side. </li><li>Asian hair is straight. Asian hair can be wavy, frizzy, and curly. Sandra Oh, who famously proclaimed that she was proud to be Asian, has naturally curly hair. </li></ul> These widely held beliefs are partially a result of inadequate representation within the media, as Asian celebrities like Lucy Liu do fit into that stereotype of having light skin and straight, black hair. 
While Asian representation has greatly expanded in recent years, even the blockbuster hit Rich, Crazy Asians had its share of stereotypes, (think: label- and status-obsessed socialites). Other common, one-note characters include the geisha, who is prim, sensual, and exists to serve others; the deceitful “dragon lady,” and the overly strict “tiger mom” figure. 
There’s also been <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/asian-women-colorful-hair-trope-problem">a trend in the entertainment world</a> of using colored hair or highlights to differentiate “rebellious” Asian characters, which is problematic for several reasons. Using hair color to visually set an Asian person apart can indicate that anyone who doesn’t use color on their hair fits all Asian stereotypes, including subservient rule-followers.

<h3>AAPI Hair Stories </h3><h3>Lisa</h3>
This Japanese-American graphic artist can attest to the myths: “A myth about Asian hair is it’s all the same – long, straight, black, right? Mine was never like that. Both my kids came out with pretty brown hair.” 
As a Japanese woman, she’s had to untangle some of her own social conditioning. “Japanese people love hair. There’s a saying that a woman’s hair is her life. So I always thought hair had to be really complicated.” 
 Now, she’s a fan of simplicity and replaced her entire family’s shampoos with <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/new-wash/">New Wash</a>. “The ingredients are clean, and I don’t have to worry about anything gunking up our hair. It takes care of my whole family.”

<h3>Amy</h3>
This Japanese actor, also defies biased expectations of Asian hair. “People stereotype Asian hair as very straight and silky-smooth, but mine is definitely not like that. It’s a little frizzy. It’s a little wavy. It’s definitely not what people usually expect.” 
 Amy uses <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/styling/hair-oil/">Hair Oil</a> to moisturize her ends and <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/styling/powder/">Powder</a> to allow her to extend time between washes. “My hair story is a very full story,” she says. “Get it? I have a lot of hair, and it’s a full, complicated, nuanced story."

<h3>Christine </h3>
This Filipina fitness instructor recalls how from a young age, the way she felt about her hair affected her confidence. 
“I was born and raised in the Philippines,” she says. “When other kids would go places, they would have their hair up in pigtails or braided, but mine was too short. The reason I had short hair – literally boy's cut hair – is because we had lice. So my mom and my aunt would cut our hair really short or send us to the salon to get rid of the lice. I remember being 13 years old with that really short boy's cut that wasn’t the norm at the time, and I didn't have the confidence to embrace myself.”
Over the years, she’s learned to accept her hair, which she describes as “fine without much volume.” She’s come to appreciate how easy it is to style and celebrates her hair’s ability to hold curls and various other styles.

After years of coloring it – something she learned from her family and friends, who also colored their hair – Christine has also come to accept her natural hair color. “Three years ago, I realized that I could continue to put these chemicals in my hair, or I can just accept it. Self-love, self-acceptance. Since then, my hair has never been happier.”
Christine raves about <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/new-wash/new-wash-original/">New Wash</a>, emphasizing it’s “the most amazing thing that I’ve done for my hair.” She recommends other Asians check out <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/styling/hair-oil/">Hair Oil</a> as well. “From the moment Hairstory launched Hair Oil, I was so excited because I know the <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/blog/best-natural-hair-oils/">importance of oil</a> – not just for our skin, but especially for hair. I use mine after showering. I’m just so happy that I found Hairstory!"

<h3>Chan</h3>
Chan echoes the self-acceptance theme in Christine’s story. An Indian-Canadian content creator, Chan remembers receiving a lot of negative comments about her hair when she was young. 
“Honestly, growing up as of the few people that actually embraced her curly hair, I did get a lot of comments about it, saying that it's too <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/blog/how-to-fix-frizzy-hair-5-tips-to-tame-your-frizz/">frizzy</a>, that I need to comb it out, that I look messy, that it's tangled, or that I'm going to get knots just because of the texture,” Chan recalls. “Those comments were coming from a lack of education and understanding of curly hair and texture. “
Chan points out that – as with negative stereotypes surrounding <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/blog/color-curl-and-culture/">natural hair in the Black community</a> – many people in the South Asian community feel negatively toward curly hair. “They think it’s not the most presentable, that you look wild because your hair looks wild and so big and untamable. That’s completely false, sister. You just need to update your curly hair routine.”

Chan is a fan of her hair. “Frizz and all,” she emphasizes. “I think it’s beautiful. It’s so healthy and thriving, and the curls are popping. It’s moisturized. It’s growing. I love everything about my hair and I go curly almost every single day now.” She relies on <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/new-wash/new-wash-original/">New Wash</a> and <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/styling/hair-balm/">Hair Balm</a> to not weigh down her already-heavy hair and keep it healthy.

<h3>Alexandra</h3>
Moving through negative childhood experiences in order to love her hair as an adult is a journey that Alexandra, a Filipino-American retail buyer, understands completely. When she was in first grade, her mom didn’t know what to do with all of Alexandra’s thick hair – so she chopped it all off. 
“She buzzed the sides with a mushroom up top,” Alexandra recalls. “It wasn’t great, and I don’t recommend it.” 
 Since then, Alexandra has worn her hair long, but she struggled with how to style it and properly take care of it. When she hit high school, she began using a straightener and using a plethora of products to keep it in line. Then she switched to a curling iron and began using mousses, gels, and hairsprays to give her hair life, not realizing she wasn’t using the right products for her hair type.

Now Alexandra uses <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/new-wash/new-wash-original/">New Wash</a>, which helps not only with her thick hair but her <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/blog/dandruff-vs-dry-scalp/">dry scalp</a>. “New Wash has really helped to moisturize my scalp as well as my hair, and the whole hair washing process has become so much easier. My girls with long hair know the struggle when it comes to wash day. It’s a thing.”
These days, Alexandra can be found letting her hair air dry and maybe hitting it with a blow dryer for a couple of minutes just to liven things up. She runs a curling iron through her hair and tops things off with a bit of <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/styling/hair-balm/">Hair Balm</a>, and she’s good to go.

<h3>Ai</h3>
A Japanese-American student, Ai is both white and Japanese. “Growing up, it was really hard for me to fit in because I didn’t really know what I was. I wasn’t white enough, because I was Asian – but I also wasn’t Asian enough because I was white. That caused me to struggle with my identity and feel like I had to change it, rather than learn to love it.” 
Growing up, Ai went to Japanese hair salons, where the stylists told her that her hair was very thick but also “really American.” Meanwhile, at the American hair salons, the stylists informed her that her hair was “very Asian.” Ai didn’t know what either of those things meant. Another time, Ai put her hair up in a bun and a man came up to her and said, “I like your hair like that. It makes you look really Asian.” Again, Ai didn’t know how to take that. 
“I don’t think he meant it in a derogatory way,” she considers. “But it wasn’t a compliment, either.”

As she got older, Ai spent time trying to figure out what she liked when it came to her hair. She’s grown it out, even donating it twice because her hair grows so fast, which is one of her favorite things about it. Her hair is thick enough that it gives her a headache when she puts it up, so she’s learned how to style it down, tucking her curtain bangs behind her ears and letting it do its thing otherwise.
“I’ve learned to love the way my natural hair color looks, too. When the sun hits it, it has a red undertone, which makes me really love it because it reminds me of my grandpa, who is a full-blown redhead.”
Ai relies on New Wash (with a side of <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/accessories/scalp-brush/">Scalp Brush</a>) to moisturize her thick, frizzy hair. She acknowledges that her hair story is ever evolving. “Maybe I’ll color it again someday. Maybe I’ll go blonde. Maybe I’ll chop it again – or grow it out really long. Who knows? But I’ve come to accept my hair and love it for what she does for me and the way she looks. I hope that you can, too.”

Representation matters, and we hope that AAPI readers can see themselves reflected here – and that the rest of us reconsider our assumptions, reject the stereotypes, and expand our awareness of what Asian hair really looks like.

As Diverse as the Diaspora: AAPI Women Share Their Hair Stories

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<h3>The Ripple Effect of Water</h3>
For the communities that <a href="https://wellawareworld.org/" target="_blank">Well Aware</a> partners with in East Africa, water is: <ul><li>Equality</li><li>Health</li><li>Education</li><li>Life</li></ul>
Without water, these essentials are difficult – if not impossible to attain. 
Across the world, women and girls are responsible for water collection in 80% of households where water is off-premises (<a href="https://www.unwater.org/water-facts/gender/">WHO/UNICEF</a>). They walk 3.5 miles on average to fetch water, often missing school or work to do so (<a href="https://www.usaid.gov/global-waters/may-2011/six-kilometers-day">USAID</a>). The water they spend so much time collecting may not be clean: 159 million people globally fetch untreated water from open, highly contaminated sources, such as rivers or dams (<a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/12-07-2017-2-1-billion-people-lack-safe-drinking-water-at-home-more-than-twice-as-many-lack-safe-sanitation">WHO</a>). Unsafe sources lead to waterborne illnesses that result in 485,000 diarrheal deaths worldwide and are particularly dangerous for children under the age of 5 (WHO). Insufficient water makes proper sanitation and hygiene difficult and further spreads illness.

These water challenges stifle growth and development.
But, when communities can count on a source of clean water, it creates a ripple effect: disease rates decrease; education rates increase; gender equality improves; agriculture expands; economies grow, and communities begin to truly thrive.

This is why building lasting clean water solutions is so important, and where <a href="https://wellawareworld.org/">Well Aware</a> comes in.<h3>Building Lasting Clean Water Solutions: The Well Aware Difference</h3>
The Well Aware mission is to provide “Clean Water for Life.” We are deeply committed to providing communities with reliable, clean, long-lasting sources of water for life – enabling communities and future generations to thrive. To date, we have implemented over 80 clean water projects that transformed more than 270,000 lives.

100% of our water projects are successful, compared with the average industry success rate of 40%. This means that every one of our water systems provides clean water long after implementation, which is critical to ensuring sustainable development for partner communities.

Our robust <a href="https://wellawareworld.org/about" target="_blank">100% sustainability model</a> is led by our community-driven approach, technical expertise, and ongoing support of water systems. No two of our 80+ water systems are technically the same; we build custom solutions for each community’s needs and geology. We utilize new technologies, continuously improve our project approach, and remain committed to the long-term success of each water system.

Our water systems become long-term anchors for community prosperity.&nbsp;<h3>Hairstory + Well Aware: Transforming Kitonyini Primary School</h3>

Well Aware is honored to partner with Hairstory to build a new, lasting clean water system for Kitonyini Primary School in Machakos County, Kenya, which will transform the lives of 300 students who currently study there and many more to come.

Currently, the primary school has poorly installed guttering that collects a fraction of the rainwater needed to sustain it. They often resort to buying water (which is expensive) or collecting from surface water sources – the seasonal river, springs, and dam – that are unavailable during dry seasons, and unsafe or unreliable. Children often miss school to fetch water; the school only has one hand washing station and is forced to do without basic hygiene and providing meals.After surveying the area and reviewing all possibilities, the Well Aware team determined the Kitonyini Primary School will benefit greatly from a large-scale rainwater collection & UV purification system. The design for the project is done, and implementation will kick off in early 2022.Once a source of clean water is available, these 300 students will be able to spend more time in the classroom, improve their health, and get the education they deserve! Hairstory will forever change the lives of many children through this project. We can’t wait to see the impact and hope you will follow along.

<h3>Project Update: February 9, 2022 Implementation has been officially kicked off</h3>
Infrastructure for the water storage tanks has begun this week, and final quotes for materials are expected shortly before construction can begin on the rest of the system. This process will take another few weeks, but the project should be fully completed by the end of March.

Meanwhile, here is a personal story from Kyalo Mutaua, 12, one of the Kitonyini Primary School students, who all complete a questionnaire about water, home, and family. A few of his entries:
Q: Does your family move around based on access to water? A: Yes.
Q: Where do you get water from? A: A river
Q: Who collects water for your family? A: Me and my mother.
Q: Do you boil water at home or drink it straight? A: We boil our water.
Q: How often do you collect water? A: About three times for one day.
Q: What does water mean to you? A: In my life, water is life

Hairstory + Well Aware: Transforming Kitonyini Primary School

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We recognize our company’s impact on the environment, and we strive to minimize it through continuous, incremental improvement. One of those improvements was being an early adopter of flexible packaging for our hero product, <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/new-wash/new-wash-original/">New Wash</a>. The reduction of plastic used, CO2 emitted, and energy consumed was significant. But we’ve taken our packaging one step further. 
 This is the story of one company’s search for more <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/sustainability/">sustainable solutions</a> to packaging beauty products.

<h3>First, there were bottles.</h3>
Once upon a time, New Wash was sold in traditional, rigid, plastic bottles. Yes, they were recyclable – and of a material (Polyethylene) and color (white) preferred by recycling companies. But what set New Wash apart wasn’t its container, but what it contained: A cleanser that also conditions, making the traditional shampoo companion of conditioner unnecessary.
Our customers who embraced washing the New way were able to reduce their packaging consumption by half when using one product rather than 2 – or even more when they could also retire detanglers, serums, and such. Many people gladly did so while also saving significant amounts of money as their showers became less and less cluttered with the usual suspects.
(+) Customer plastic use was cut by half. 
(+) The bottle was the type and color preferred by recyclers.

<h3>Then came the pouch.</h3>
Offering refillable containers for our products was our intention from day one. We started by introducing flexible pouches for New Wash in its larger sizes to decant into reusable aluminum bottles: 20 ounces for the New Wash super-fan at home, and a waste-saving 32-ounce size for professional use at the shampoo station – an area usually teeming with huge plastic jugs of shampoos and conditioners.
(+) Customer plastic use was cut by 87%.
(-) 8-ounce sizes were still packaged in rigid bottles

<h3>New Wash Rich led the pack.</h3>
Our most moisturizing formula, <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/new-wash/new-wash-rich/">New Wash Rich</a>, frustrated its fans who struggled to get such a thick creme out of its bottle, especially that last helping or two; it was just too rich! Necessity spurred invention, and we took a cue from Rich’s big sisters; an 8-ounce pouch soon made its debut in the New Wash lineup. 
The bottle’s days were numbered.
(+) Plastic use and CO2 emissions cut even further.
(-) Despite all their advantages, pouches made of various materials were not recyclable.

<h3>We went big – and small.</h3>
Buoyed by their many benefits, we phased in pouches at both ends of the size spectrum across all formulas. 8-ounce pouches replaced bottles for personal use and a whopping 64-ounce pouch provisioned the busy hairdresser. Both 20- and 32-ounce sizes became available at retail to all customers, signaling a new and virtuous direction for our hero product.
(+) Plastic use and CO2 emissions were dramatically reduced.
(-) Pouches were still unrecyclable.

<h3>The new, new way</h3>
Today, <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/new-wash/">all New Wash products</a> are available in [drumroll please] fully recyclable LLDPE (Linear Low-Density Polyethylene) pouches – with only one layer of material between customers and their New Wash. In addition, we made them slightly smaller to reduce the plastic content and to make them feel softer and more manageable in hand. They are also made in Canada rather than China, which means a sizeable reduction in transportation emissions to our US-based manufacturers.

This new standard for New Wash will phase into our inventory beginning in October. It will take time for it to replace all of our inventory in several warehouses; Some customers have already experienced the difference, and eventually, all will be able to reduce their trash destined for landfills.
(+) Plastic, energy, water use, and CO2 emissions plummet even further.
(+) Pouches are now a single layer of fully recyclable plastic!
Yes, it’s still plastic. It’s the best option we have at this stage for packaging that is compatible with our type of products, but that’s the great thing about evolution; it never stops. Neither will we.
…
You might be asking, “Great. But what about your <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/products/styling/">styling products</a>’ packaging?” Good question. The answer is that we’re working on it and testing refill options. Stay tuned; our customers (we hope you’re one) and their hairdressers will be the first to know.

<h3>How to Recycle New Wash Pouches</h3>
When you’ve squeezed out every last drop out of your pouch, slice it open and rinse well before placing it in your recycling bin. Easy.

The Evolution of New Wash Packaging Sustainability

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At <a href="http://globalforestgeneration.org/">Global Forest Generation</a> (GFG), safeguarding water through successful forest ecosystem restoration is central to our work. We’re concerned not only with regenerating healthy forests, but with restoring and protecting their ecosystems (the interconnected, interdependent communities of trees and fungi and plant and animal species and soil and water that exist within the forest environment).

Forests are well-recognized as a nature-based solution to climate change because of their enormous capacity to trap and store the carbon from fossil fuel emissions in their branches, trunks, leaves, roots, and soil. Equally indispensable – but perhaps not as widely appreciated – is the role of forests in safeguarding the fresh, clean water all living species – including, of course, us humans – can’t live without. 
How do trees do this? To briefly summarize a complex process: trees catch precipitation. In addition to returning moisture to the atmosphere from their leaves and branches, trees capture water underground along their networks of roots. This captured water becomes a watershed, an underground area that collects and channels water to rivers and streams. The superpowers of trees include the ability of microbes (fungi) at their root tips to clean water stored by the trees, removing contaminants.
GFG’s flagship ecosystem restoration initiative, <a href="http://www.accion-andina.org">Accion Andina</a>, is a growing network of grassroots conservation leaders in South America and their communities (many indigenous) that are highly motivated to regenerate and steward their forests for water security. The inspiration for Acción Andina -- and for GFG -- is Peruvian indigenous conservation leader, Constantino (Tino) Aucca, GFG Co-founder and catalyst for more than two decades of successful community reforestation. It’s his dream to bring back Andean forests with his model of strong local leadership and long-term participation of local communities.
The rural people living in remote areas beneath the rapidly receding glaciers of the Andes mountains understand the consequences of climate change and are using their centuries-old indigenous customs to adapt. The principles of Ayni and Minka (reciprocity and shared communal work) enabled their ancestors to build the Inca empire. 
Now these principles are bringing neighboring communities together to protect their lands and livelihoods by growing new native forests that will ensure access to fresh water, preserving their livelihoods and cultures, while providing a refuge for threatened wildlife. Restoring lost forests is approached collectively and collaboratively and as a celebration of life and culture. GFG embraces these universal principles of Ayni and Minka. We are grateful to our generous donor partner, Hairstory – an integral part of the Ayni and Minka spirit of collaboration!

The native forests that GFG is restoring with our local partners in South America are the most important forests that most people have never heard of – Polylepis. These trees are particularly notable for their tremendous capacity to capture and store water. Polylepis are among the world’s highest altitude forests, growing up to 16,400 feet above sea level. With their many layers of parchment-thin layers of bark, the evergreen Polylepis are well-adapted to survive the extreme climatic conditions of the Andes. Polylepis leaves comb enormous quantities of mist from the clouds, even in the dry season. And while trees, as described earlier, function as water collectors, Polylepis are the super soakers, promoting the growth of spongy, absorbent mosses while transforming degraded, eroded landscapes into healthy,&nbsp;carbon and water rich soils.

<h3>A NEW WATER PROTECTION AREA IN ECUADOR</h3>
GFG is strongly committed to collaboration within the Acción Andina network of on-the-ground partners so that restoration projects can grow to their full potential and have a significant impact. A great example of this collaborative effort in Ecuador is the creation and management of a brand new permanent Water Protection Area by two of our Acción Andina partners: FONAG (Fondo para la 
Protección del Agua), the water protection fund that provides water for the 2+ million people living in Ecuador’s capital, Quito – and Aves y Conservacion, the conservation nonprofit (also based in Quito) that protects biodiversity, particularly birds and their habitats. In order to create this new protected area, our two partners have engaged Ecuador’s Ministry of Environment as well as the local governments northwest of Quito.

Hairstory is the first donor supporting Acción Andina’s Mojanda Otavalo Water Protection Area, which will supply clean water to more than 75,000 inhabitants of this rural area northwest of Quito.
The primarily indigenous Kichwa communities in the provinces of Imbabura and Pichincha (north of Quito) currently draw their water from catchments and reservoirs often contaminated by livestock waste. FONAG will upgrade families’ water catchments while training communities to effectively manage their lands and water in exchange for community protection of existing and recovering forests. FONAG will also plant living fences (bushy shrubs that grow closely together) to protect newly reforested areas.
The nearly 100,000 acres of the Water Protection Area encompasses one of the last remnants of old-growth Andean forest in Ecuador’s north-central Sierra mountains. It also includes paramo (grasslands and shrubs on plateaus above the cloud forest) and two lagoons situated on top of an inactive volcano, previously declared a geopark by UNESCO.

A plan will be developed and implemented to ensure that this standing forest remains standing. Aves y Conservacion will be initiating a biological survey to determine the biodiversity of the area, which is thought to include 49 species of mammals, including charismatic species like the Spectacled Bear and Puma; 93 species of birds, including the Andean Condor; 3000 species of plants; and 5 species of reptiles.

This new project will also provide jobs for the local people as do the ongoing restoration projects. Aves y Conservacion trains and pays women to work in its nurseries throughout the year as it takes many months in the high elevations of the Andes to grow seedlings into healthy saplings. Their jobs enable the women to make a meaningful contribution to their families’ financial security.

This year, the reforestation goal of Aves y Conservacion is 70,000 Polylepis trees in Imbabura and 120,000 trees in Pichincha (80,000 Polylepis in addition to alders and other native trees). FONAG’s target is 283,000 trees (most of which will be funded by Acción Andina).
All of these actions will result in true ecosystem restoration: local organizations benefiting local people, conserving forests, water and biodiversity, and achieving long-term climate resilience – which is exactly what GFG is working so hard to set in motion and sustain!

Supporting Forest Restoration in the Andes

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Have you realized the impact your individual purchases have on the planet? It’s a challenge to know which businesses to support financially if you don’t know whether to support them ethically. 
The ocean, in particular, bears the cost of consumerism, with chemical spills, plastic pollution, overfishing, surface run-off, deoxygenation from fertilizers, and deep sea mining being just a few of the immediate consequences. The burning of oil, coal and gas, as well as deforestation are the primary causes of increased carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. This behavior has caused a rapid increase in ocean acidification, ocean warming, changes to biological processes, and the death of countless plants and mammals. So what can we do? How do we align our purchases with our priorities? 
First, we need to look at what we’re protecting. At the forefront of marine deterioration is the fragile reef ecosystem. Known as the rainforest of the sea, coral reefs are the most diverse of all marine ecosystems. Corals provide three-dimensional structures and substrates to house and feed fish and other marine animals that humans eat. In one way or another, more than 500 million people depend on coral reefs for food, income, coastal protection, and more.

Healthy coral varies in color: olive green, yellow, blue, pink and dark or light brown pigmentation protects against sunlight and other damaging stress factors. When a coral is dying, it loses its color and becomes white.
Coral reef plants and animals are important sources of new medicines being developed to treat cancer, arthritis, human bacterial infections, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, viruses, and other diseases. As stationary animals, corals have evolved to develop chemical defenses against predators that are being researched for their medicinal, nutritional, and cosmetic potential. 
Despite their outstanding survival strategies, coral reefs are dying at an alarming rate all over the world. With pollution, overfishing, and human-caused ocean warming, 50 percent of the world’s coral reefs have died in the last 30 years, and up to 90 percent may die within the next century. Very few pristine coral reefs still exist, and we are in a race against time.
With extreme urgency, <a href="https://www.countingcoral.com/">Counting Coral</a> – alongside other organizations – has made it their mission to plant coral and save what is left of these beautiful ecosystems. With limited time to make drastic changes, Counting Coral is taking action to diminish the devastating effects of coral loss by changing the way coral gardeners garden coral.
Our new approach to reef restoration is to harvest rare climate-tolerant coral and place it on sculptures specifically designed to protect coral from predators. These precious, valuable corals will be kept safe and allowed to grow to spawning maturity and naturally propagate.
Counting Coral’s sculptures are made from durable and non-corrosive marine-grade stainless steel. Differing from most coral gardening practices, Counting Coral’s structures are not only practical, but are beautifully designed, and add a visually appealing aesthetic to the underwater world.

Counting Coral’s vision is to create protected areas around the world where large, managed sculptural nurseries can be built. These will be managed by Counting Coral as concessions, with the sole purpose of self-generated revenues going directly back to reef restoration. Dive operators, hoteliers, restaurants and local communities gain marketing opportunities from the new revenue streams and become stakeholders. In most cases, our sculptures will be sites for scientists and marine biologists to to study coral in a controlled environment.
Worldwide government initiatives have been set; by the year 2030, 30% of oceans will have been protected. While this is a great overall plan, current findings show that marine areas may be “protected” on paper with very little protection and even less management. This is where we differ: Counting Coral and surrounding communities become stakeholders of these parks – with an incentive to manage and protect.
The beautifully designed sculptural installations create meaningful ways to engage people with the mission to conserve coral and marine life. Counting Coral strives to positively influence and educate about how to better care for our planet. 
With such a large mission at hand, fighting for environmental protection is simply impossible to do alone. In such trying times, collaboration, philanthropy, and support is needed most. Counting Coral is grateful to be partnered with and work alongside environmentally conscious companies whose morals align. A standout is our friends at Hairstory. 
Hairstory has stepped beyond the limitations of the industry, starting with the way they guide people to think about hair, and how those choices extend beyond it. Not only have they worked to rethink hair products, they’ve done one of the hardest things in the beauty industry – make meaningful steps towards sustainability and <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/blog/conscious-consumerism-it-s-not-always-easy-but-it-s-worth-it/">conscious consumerism</a>. 
Hairstory is creating <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/blog/what-is-clean-beauty/">clean beauty</a> products free of harmful ingredients whilst simultaneously communicating the power of personal purchase – socially, economically, and environmentally. By limiting plastic waste and making refills easy, Hairstory has significantly contributed to the future of healthy oceans.
The beauty industry is one of the most detrimental to coral reefs; packaging is often not recycled; common ingredients increase disease up to 94%, decrease fertility in fish, and destroy coral reefs. As more and more of these plastics make their way into oceans, harmful waste products will continue to build up.
Hairstory has decided to not only support the ocean in their proactive environmental efforts, but to directly support Counting Coral through a large donation that will drastically change the momentum of what we aim to do. 
Counting Coral’s projects are entirely financed by the general public, individual philanthropy, sponsors, and small and large businesses. Our nonprofit model means that all donations go directly into the reef restoration projects; every penny makes a world of difference. With no product to bring to market, driving awareness and raising funds are challenging for a nonprofit. 
Over the last year, Counting Coral has raised money for design, materials, steel cutting, welding, and sculptural assembly. Hairstory’s philanthropic contribution to Counting Coral has now allowed us to support an experienced team of specialized divers to sink and anchor the sculptural coral nursery marine park to the sea floor.

The founder of Counting Coral, Jolyon Collier, has over 38 years as an experienced craftsman, metalsmith, and artist. He plans for a 4-week installation before the hand planting process to sink the ornate sculptural nursery inspired by French and Belgian Art Nouveau.
Environmental protection is an individual responsibility for all human beings. Losing large portions of the natural world will drastically reduce the human quality of life, and threaten our children and theirs.
No species that destroys its own habitat survives. There is no way to get “out of” taking care of ours nor should there be. The more we contaminate and destroy, the more valuable remaining areas become. Will we eventually out-consume our ability to sustain ourselves? 
When more brands and companies share this same determination for environmental protection, we could see monumental changes in the years to come. 
Be conscious of everything you do and everything you consume. Take the extra second, the extra minute. The clock is ticking; we don’t want to know what happens when it runs out.

Giving Back: Counting Coral and Hairstory

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Handing down the craft of hairdressing from one generation to the next is a tradition with deep roots in styling and barbering families. And to celebrate Father’s Day, what better tribute can a haircare company make than to highlight the opportunities that a hairdressing career can offer – and sustain not just families, but the communities that surround them? If doing hair runs in the blood, all the better.

Some perhaps familiar names in the hairdressing profession trace the foundation of their careers to their dads. Joshua Galvin – one of the new breed of hairdressers in the 1960s who made his name in the Revlon salon in New York as a personal hairdresser to Judy Garland and Julie Andrews – came from four generations of hair craft. His grandfather was a master wig maker, his father a master barber who Galvin worked with on Saturdays. His daughter attended a college of fashion and is reputedly a talented hairdresser.

Charles Booth – the owner of 3 salons called La Coupe in the 1970s in Montreal, Toronto, and New York and creator of La Coupe Products – was brought up while living above a hairdressing salon where he worked as a kid sweeping the floor and cleaning perm rods; his mother and uncle owned a chain of salons up and down England, and his grandfather was a barber.

Trevor Sorbie – a salon and product entrepreneur with a chain of 7 salons who has been lavishly decorated with accolades including an honor by Queen Elizabeth – started his hairdressing journey as a high school dropout working in a barbershop run by his father.

We spoke with veteran hairdresser Chris Hunt, owner of Puretotnes Salon in Totnes, England. His father was a ‘ladies’ hairdresser,’ and his mother, an aunt, and a cousin were all in the hair business. (Of his 3 daughters, none have yet to express an interest in continuing the family trade.) His hairdressing career began in his teens in the ’80s and ’90s at his father’s side. Here are some highlights of our conversation.

<h4>Tell us about your parents, and what it was like growing up in a salon environment.</h4>
“I was a ‘Saturday’ boy when I was about 10 or 11, which means helping out around the salon until you can reach the basin and can start shampooing clients. I used to do that for my father. My school shut down when I was 15, and my father took me under his wing to work in the salon full time. Then he sent me to the Vidal Sassoon Academy in London to finish my education. He said, ‘Look, you've been with us for so long, you’ve got to see something else and learn some new things. And it looks better than purely keeping it in the family.’
He was a hard taskmaster, but I look back now, and I think it’s made me who I am. He sent me on the right path.”

<h4>Had you decided for yourself that hairdressing was the career you were going to embark on?</h4>
“Well, for my 14th birthday I wanted a pair of scissors – not a tracksuit, or a pair of trainers… ‘A pair of scissors dad, that’s what I would like!” He used to save copies of Hairdressers’ Journal for me, which is our publication over here. I had a big stack in my wardrobe; I was a bit of a nerd for those magazines. He also used to take me up to Manchester to see the big hair shows.

Later in life, I found out that my auntie had a salon. I also had an uncle and a cousin who used to work for Wella. I had another cousin who used to be a hairdresser. So, we’ve got lots of members of the family and I'm just so pleased that he showed me the trade.” <h4>Do you find that hairdressing is a generally respected profession? There are plenty of stories of young people saying, ‘Dad, I want to be a hairdresser,’ and it not being what Dad dreamt for his kid.</h4>
“Over time we’ve seen a lot more programs on television about hairdressers and the background and all the different opportunities and avenues one can take. You're right that years ago it was, it was considered a cop-out – if you didn't know what to do at school, just go to the local tech. But nowadays, parents see celebrity hairdressers, the cars they drive, the nice clothes, material things.
And obviously, there’s the creative side of it. Whether session or salon styling, it’s more evident now, and people realize there are so many different facets to our industry. It has really raised the bar for us, which is great.”

<h4>What advice would you give to an aspiring hairdresser? </h4>
“If somebody asks me, I say, "Look, at the end of the day, my advice is to go to London, or a major city, and try and get an apprenticeship. You need a very good foundation. Once you have that foundation, move around and learn different experiences. Try different salons. Find the way you want to work.
My brother thought about it after he had gone to college and dropped out; he sat there with my mother and me and said, ‘Well, mom used to be a hairdresser. Dad is a hairdresser…’ and he looks at me and I said, ‘Hairdressing is not an afterthought. You need to find what you need to find, but believe me, this isn't it.’ Thank goodness he found what he was looking for, and it's certainly not hairdressing.”

<h4>What were the most important things your father passed on to you professionally?</h4>
“When I used to work in his shop, I had to work twice as hard as everybody else to prove that I never had advantages working there. He very rarely said that he liked anything. But when he did it meant a lot because, at the time, I thought that he was being extremely tough on me, but it’s done me good because it made me try harder.
What he really taught me was how to deal with people. No matter who walked into the shop, he would always say, ‘good morning’ and ‘goodbye’ – and call them by their name. Whether they were his clients or not, he knew everybody’s name.
Dealing with people is really half the battle. You could be the best cutter in the world, but if you can't deal with people, well – crumbs – you're only going to be half as busy!”

Fathers and Sons: Hairdressers Pass the Shears

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<h3>Making the choice to sell products for conscious consumers or to be a conscious consumer has its challenges, but taking steps towards sustainability is always the right choice.</h3>

<h5>WHAT IS CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM?</h5>
Conscious consumerism – it’s a phrase that means exactly what it sounds like: choosing to buy – or not buy – to make a positive impact socially, economically, or environmentally. But, for those who sell products with sustainability in focus, satisfying conscious consumers can be much more complicated.
At Hairstory’s 2021 Sustainable Beauty Summit, held virtually on April 8, Liza Moiseeva, the co-founder & CMO of Brightly.eco, sat down with Mia Davis, who is the vice president of sustainability and impact at the Credo, (a company that sells clean, non-toxic beauty and skin care products, and Meika Hollender, the vice president of communications at Grove Collaborative, (a company that sells a variety of sustainable home products, including their own brand). They discussed their thoughts on conscious consumerism, greenwashing, the hard decisions they’ve had to make as leaders in sustainable beauty, and simple steps toward sustainability that we can all take.<h5>IS IT AN OXYMORON TO SELL STUFF WHILE PREACHING SUSTAINABILITY?</h5>

“Conscious consumerism, as a term, kind of inherently makes me a little uncomfortable as I’m someone who thinks a lot about our overconsumption in the United States,” said Davis. “It’s something I grapple with all of the time because I'm a sustainability person who sells stuff. And I'm in the beauty industry. So, there's an inherent tension there.”&nbsp;

The problem with working in the beauty industry, Davis explained, is that it’s an industry that generates a lot of waste. Lots of stuff is sold, and that stuff requires lots of packaging – retailing is inherently unsustainable. Plus, she’s also a consumer who buys stuff.&nbsp;


So how is it possible to voice concerns about over-consumption while selling (and buying) stuff? For Davis, it’s about empowering and encouraging others to buy and sell stuff while still focusing on what is best for their own health, their children's health, and the environment.

“The more that consumers and customers are thinking about hard questions and thinking holistically about what the impact of their purchase might be, the better,” Davis continued. “Whether that occurs at the start of the process, or at the end of the process when something is washed down the drain – or even when something is supposedly recycled but probably isn't – that's what it’s about. It’s also about worker’s rights, of course, and other sustainability issues.”<h5>BEING A CONSCIOUS CONSUMER ISN’T EASY</h5>
But consuming consciously means reading between the lines of marketing lingo, and that’s not always easy. Some companies claim to be all-natural, which doesn't mean much, while others make environmentally-friendly claims. But they don't always practice what they preach.&nbsp;

When companies “greenwash,” the onus is on the consumer to do the work to determine if what they're being promised is right, wrong, or realistic. It requires research and critical thinking, which not everyone has the time for. Hollender gives us a place to start.&nbsp;

“One of the really devastating areas around greenwashing is about plastic and recycling plastic,” she pointed out. “Only 9% of plastic is actually recycled. It doesn't matter how much is going into the recycling bin, we don’t have great infrastructure to recycle plastics. So, when you have the big consumer products and companies talking about how by X date – 10, 20, 30 years from now – they will use 50% recycled plastic to make their products, that's just not even possible.”<h5>When conscious consumers use plastic, they toss it in the recycling bin once done. But not all plastic can be recycled, and even if it can, it might not be.</h5>
Consumers trust that they are making informed environmental decisions when choosing what to buy or who to buy it from, but that’s not always possible.


Grove Collaborative recently became a Certified B Corporation. To achieve this, a business must “meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” Hollender believes this is the way forward.&nbsp;

“There's still a lot of work to do to hold companies accountable,” she admits. “Outside of them electing to become a B Corp, or a public benefit corporation, how do we put laws in place to check what they're doing? That's the part that we obviously haven't solved yet.”<h5>BEING A SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS ISN’T EASY EITHER, ESPECIALLY WHEN DECISIONS HAVE FINANCIAL CONSEQUENCES</h5>

But as some businesses work to create a strong and honest environmental or sustainability policy without laws to hold them accountable, they have to consider what it might cost their business. They could lose valuable vendors or clients. Making these decisions are difficult, but both Hollender and Davis believe they’re worth it.&nbsp;

“For Credo, clean is really defined as the nexus of safety, sourcing, sustainability, and ethics,” Davis explained. “In April of 2020, we launched our industry-leading sustainable packaging guidelines. One of the first milestones that our brands have to meet, according to those guidelines, is no more single-use containers, no more sampling. That milestone is coming right up on June first of this year.”&nbsp;

This wasn’t an easy business decision for Davis and her team. It was hard and uncomfortable. They knew they were rocking the boat and that their decision would be controversial. But, she said, the decision was “also kind of simple.”

“Sustainability is part of what we're doing,” she said. “When you really look at what's at stake, or when you really take a step back, you see that there's approximately 122 billion little sachets and packets that are produced annually – and some people think that's a really conservative number, that it's actually much higher. Those are never recyclable, because they're tiny, little flexible packages. They blow away in the wind. And, they’re made of mixed materials, so they're never going to be recycled. So, we just had to say no. And that's really weird for beauty. Beauty samples. That's how it's done. So, us saying no was actually a very big business decision.” <h5>THE PANDEMIC CHANGED THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY</h5>
As hard as those business decisions are, COVID-19 was possibly more stressful for many eco-conscious businesses. When the pandemic hit, consumers re-evaluated everything in their lives. Many clean business owners weren’t sure how their brands would fare. But, Hollender said, it was actually a boom for environmentally and socially conscious consumerism.&nbsp;
 

“Sustainability, particularly in the consumer space, was a silver lining during COVID,” said Hollender. “At the beginning of the pandemic, I was pretty nervous that we were going to see a big flip back to the traditional brands, to this idea that people want the strongest, most powerful, most established brands disinfecting their homes. But looking back on the year, what we ended up seeing was actually natural products in all categories continuing to steal market share from traditional brands. How amazing is that, especially during a pandemic?”&nbsp;

Hollender explained that while people were spending so much time in their homes, as were their kids, people became hyper-aware of what they were using every day – they literally sat with their choices, smelling and breathing them. And, because the efficacy of less toxic products is rising and the prices are falling compared to standard brands, it became a no-brainer.<h5>HOW TO BE A CONSCIOUS CONSUMER: TAKING ONE SMALL STEPS TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY</h5>
At the end of the day, economic, environmental, and socially conscious consumerism is about both the big and small decisions we make as consumers. In fact, there are plenty of simple, actionable steps towards sustainability that you can take today.

“One of the most actionable things people can do is to stop using single-use items,” Davis recommended. “No more water bottles, no more coffee cups, and definitely no more cutlery from takeout containers. At first, it might be annoying to remember to say no and to remember your cup, but you know what, we can totally do this. And once you start doing it, it's just like anything else you're in the habit of doing it.”&nbsp;

When you place a takeout or delivery order and you plan to eat at home, Davis recommends you politely request that the restaurant not include cutlery. Or when you’re purchasing beauty products, opt for low or no-waste options like refillable shampoo and wash products.&nbsp;

“They’re made out of thin plastic,” she said. “They’re meant to be used for seconds, and then they’ll never leave the planet. If every single person who didn't need it said no to it, we would be making an impact.”&nbsp;

With recycling a pretty flimsy bandaid for the plastics problem, The most effective form of conscious consumerism is finding ways to reduce and reuse. 
“I have a new baby, and we've been using reusable dishcloths instead of paper towels for cleaning up after him when he’s eating or playing,” said Hollender. “We just have two cloths, and they get us through the day, every day. I've been amazed at how much paper towel we've eliminated from our home.”&nbsp;

If becoming a conscious consumer seems overwhelming, take it one step at a time. It won’t cost you anything, and in fact, you'll even save money. Sustainability is a journey, so start exactly where you are, and then don't stop!

Conscious Consumerism: It’s Not Always Easy, But It’s Worth It

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<h3>Defining corporate greenwashing with Executive Director and Made Safe founder Amy Ziff, and Ronie Schmelz, Counsel</h3>

<a href="https://www.madesafe.org/">Made Safe</a> was founded by Amy Ziff, a journalist and mother who was on a mission to solve her youngest children’s severe allergies to things even sent home with her from the hospital by her doctors. Joining her is Ronie Schmelz, an attorney specializing in regulatory compliance and helping companies to stay out of trouble whenever they communicate with consumers.

A self-proclaimed “ecoista,” Amy shopped at places like Whole Foods and thought she was doing right by her family and her children to buy them healthy, clean, often expensive products. “It turns out that there really is so little regulation and so little definition that you can think you’re buying something good, and it can be filled with <a href="https://www.hairstory.com/stories/2019/05/30/these-ingredients-do-not-belong-in-your-hair/">nasty chemicals</a>.” Amy’s journey with her own children led her to this market realization that there are over 84,000+ chemicals in use today, with roughly 700 untested chemicals being added every year.

<h5>GETTING AHEAD OF CORPORATE GREENWASHING MARKETING</h5>
Amy wanted to make a change and inform people, so she strove to create a highly defined set of principles that outlines what it means to make a product from safe ingredients that won’t harm humans or the wider ecosystem. As Ronie notes, “there is this vacuum that has been created on the regulator front and there’s no definition by the government of ‘clean.’ People like Amy have stepped into the void to help educate consumers” and bridge the knowledge gap for them to make better-informed choices while shopping.

“Most of the chemicals that are widely used today were never put through any kind of review.” Made Safe vets these chemicals for human health first then eco-health, including testing ingredients against: soil, air, water, flora, and fauna. Made Safe has a ‘banned list’ of nearly 6,500 chemicals, which is nearly 4x the size of that of Europe, and 50x of the United States.&nbsp;
 

Amy notes, “we prioritize people” using a precautionary approach. How? Made Safe test chemicals before they are put into products and proven innocent, and work to prevent bad ones from ever being used, rather than a chemical being deemed unfit and having to be pulled from the shelves or undergo a class action lawsuit.

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