Sustainable Salons is celebrating ten years of their inimitable impact on the salon industry, and touring Australia and New Zealand in honour of the milestone. The tour will continue throughout 2025 in 13 separate presentations and donate one hundred per cent of proceeds from ticket sales to OzHarvest and KiwiHarvest.
Celebrating the organisation’s members, partners, and supporters who have joined and helped to build the movement since 2015, the organisation brings together local salon communities to hear from local members, look back at what’s been achieved and look ahead at what’s to come.
Kicking off the tour amidst food and wine on March 17 at Wild Life Hair in Milsons Point, Sydney, Sustainable Salons co-founder Paul Frasca shared the brand journey that he started with his partner and fellow co-founder Ewelina Soroko. The company went from launching Refoil to building the Sustainable Salons network, which has since diverted over 2.1 million kilograms of salon waste from landfill, contributed more than 394,000 meals to OzHarvest and KiwiHarvest and achieved so much more in their list of accomplishments. The organisation now also boasts 1500 members and employs 46 supported workers with disabilities.
Talking through the ten-year brand journey, Paul also touched on highlights such as The Hairy Couch, which was filled with 20 kilograms of hair, and the more recent advent of manufacturing retail-worthy profits from waste materials to sell back to your clients – think combs, fertilisers and beyond. The organisation continues to revolutionise waste management across various and specialised locales and invest in further research that is contributing to the future of upcycling through salon materials.
Extensive recycling includes over 670,000 kilograms of recycled metal, 180,000 kilograms of hair, 86,000 litres of chemical waste, where 98 per cent of colour wastage is water, 563,000 kilograms of plastic and almost 300,000 ponytails of donated hair. These recycled savings mean that 394,000 meals have been donated to the disadvantaged, while environmental innovations such as hair booms, used to soak up oil spills, continue to intelligently help the planet.
Looking ahead to the future of Sustainable Salons, attendees were given a first look at the latest Sustainable Salons innovations in development, including the continued future of hair booms, bricks made of hair, research projects on how hair can be transformed into graphite and the development of oil from soft plastics, alongside other inventive uses for salon waste. New product offerings such as an upcoming coffee table book will also launch through this tenth year, with releases to be discovered at Hair Festival 2025.
In the spirit of community, attendees also heard from members and partners. Event sponsor Shortcuts presented key business trends, with Chloe Wilson discussing changing staff sizes, SMS marketing and rebooking, while also talking about Shortcuts’ important relationship with Sustainable Salons.
Gary Latham from Wild Life Hair Origin, Nicki Ranatunga from Salon Purpose, and Sascha Craven-Sands from Sage Hair & Beauty Lounge then gave their personal stories about the impact of sustainability in their salon businesses.
Sascha shared the story behind her Tame Your Nest product, while Nicki spoke about her grassroots community work and shared the growth of her salon from a home salon to an award-winning, 19-stylist space, which also raises money for Ugandan women and national women’s shelters. In donating up to $100,000 over five years, Nicki believes that “hair with heart” helps her business, opining that the “vibe attracts the tribe”. Finally, Gary explained how he engaged his team through a salon-wide competition and how sustainable practices have transformed the esteemed Wild Life salon brand.
Ewelina and I wanted to celebrate 10 years of epic impact by bringing the party to the people who made it all happen – our network. Diverting over 2 million kilos of salon waste? That’s all them. Kicking things off in Sydney was unreal – so good to see our amazing members, partners and supporters come together, and we’re pumped to hit more cities and share what’s next for their waste!
“Ewelina and I wanted to celebrate 10 years of epic impact by bringing the party to the people who made it all happen – our network,” Paul shared. “Diverting over 2 million kilograms of salon waste is all them. Kicking things off in Sydney was unreal – it was so good to see our amazing members, partners and supporters come together, and we’re pumped to hit more cities and share what’s next for their waste!”
Happy tenth birthday to Sustainable Salons – the next ten years and beyond are sure to continue to change the world and the salon industry for the better.
For more information visit web.sustainablesalons.org/sustainable-salons-on-tour/
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