Ecoiffeurs

If you wish to define something as green these days, you can pretty much get away with adding Eco to the beginning of any word so if Graeme Whitfield of the Journal can term Journalese as a new language then I am staking my claim as the person who came up with Ecolese.

Ecoiffeurs is a hybrid of Eco and the word Coiffeurs, which strictly translated means men who style hair, but not one to let a bit of French grammar get in the way of a great headline and as the founder of Ecolese, I can decide to make it mean whatever I like.

Ecoiffeurs in ecolese speak means an environmentally friendly hairdressers and until recently I didn't know that such establishments existed.

One of the best things about writing this blog is that it forces me to seek out a green version of whatever activity or product I am about to try or buy. Thus it came to pass that it was time to get my haircut.

Now I have to lay my cards on the table here and admit that I am every hairdresser's worst nightmare.
I get my hair cut perhaps twice a year and this usually comes about as a result of waking up one morning and deciding enough is enough.

No pre-planned 6 weekly visits for me, no colour appointments or deep conditioning sessions nor do I show any loyalty as to who does my hair. Nope, my one and only requirement, when I make that decision to get a cut, is can they do my hair right there and right then.

I always nod guiltily when the poor hairdresser, trying to make sense of my birds nest, trots out the usual "you really should get regular trims".
I always pay at the end with the promise that I'll dutifully return sooner rather than later and then invariably never get round to it.

Back in June, I was lucky enough to take part in an ethical fashion shoot with the Journal's Rebecca Young.
She tried to ensure that every aspect of the shoot was principled and even found an eco-hairdresser to style my hair.

The stylist came from LEAF hairdressing salon in Heaton where amongst doing other green type things they use Aveda products and colours.

So grateful was I, at being made to look fabulous by the stylist and intrigued to know what the salon might be doing differently to others, I promised myself that the next time I woke up in a 'that's it, I must get my haircut' mood, LEAF would be my first stop (so long as they could fit me in that is).

LEAF Hairdressing, situated on Heaton Road, styles itself as 'The Eco Salon in Heaton' under the by-line of 'for hairdressing with a conscience'.

It began life nearly 15 years ago, set up by the energetic Katie Caisley, 35, who lives nearby in Heaton with her husband Geoff and their four children.
I sat down with her for a cup of Fairtrade tea to find out what 'hairdressing with a conscience' means and why she made the change from being a regular salon to one that tries to work ethically.

The two initial drivers for Katie were firstly, that she was becoming increasingly aware of the large amounts of waste that the salon was generating through plastic bottles and secondly more and more clients were discussing the environment with her.

"The decision to change was an easy one' says Katie 'I knew that I could make the changes that needed to happen, to lower our environmental impact, with the full support of our customers".

"We had an environmental impact report drawn up for us which calculated our carbon footprint and made other recommendations as to how to improve".

The obvious improvement was switching from standard hair care products to the Aveda hair care range, which in addition to shampoos and styling products also has a professional range of colours and activators.

All of Aveda's hair products are plant based, using organic and community traded products where possible.

Packaging is minimal and includes a large amount of post recycled plastic in its bottles. For the animal lovers amongst us, you'll be pleased to know that nothing is tested on furry creatures.

Depending on the level of permanence, the professional colours are formulated with between 93-99% natural ingredients. For hair lightening, an activator, based on peroxide but buffered with natural oils, is used.
Uber-ecoistas will also be pleased to learn that Aveda purchase enough wind power to offset its manufacturing activities.

So apart from using ethically minded products, what other initiatives did Katie implement at LEAF?

Numerous as it turns out; she proudly informs me that all cleaning products are from ECOVER, they get their electricity from Ecotricity, the renewable energy supplier, all plastic bottles are recycled as is other waste, standard light bulbs have been exchanged for energy efficient versions, the water cooler has been banished and Fairtrade refreshments are served.

One of the areas where improvement proved difficult was staff travel to and from work.
This is one of the activities whereby Carbon offsetting can be a useful tool. To this end Katie calculates the CO2 emissions and purchases offsets.

After my chat with Katie, I came away impressed and reassured that this was not just another load of 'greenwash' or rather 'greenrinse' and what's more, LEAF could fit me in straightaway.

'Excellent' I thought and as it turns out, Beverley, my hairdresser for the duration, didn't do a bad job at all on my hair either.

Not much to report on my actual haircut as it is always a straight forward trim for me, but I did take the opportunity to talk to Beverley about her experiences of working at LEAF and using Aveda products.

In part I was able to do this; because one of the refreshing things about LEAF is that they don't constantly try and obviously sell you the products that they are using.
Why salons do this is beyond me; it makes both the poor employee and customer feel very uncomfortable and I have always, point blank, refused to return to any salon that has tried this tactic on me.

Anyway, I inform Beverley that apart from a couple of disastrous jet black adventures during a short lived teen-goth period in my life, I have never dyed my hair and therefore, was unsure as to how natural colours are different to standard ones, if they are better and wondered what customers thought of them.

"It took some time to get used to working with them" she says "standard colours come in a one colour tube, however with Aveda colours you need to mix a number of colours to get the right match. This makes the colour seem more natural and multi-toned rather than a great big block of colour".

According to Beverley customers really like the effect and there has been an increase in clients through the door, solely for the fact that the salon uses Aveda, so it seems that Katie's gut instinct was right and that her efforts are paying off.

Whilst we're on the subject of paying, it merits mentioning the cost; LEAF comes across as a luxurious, light and modern city centre salon but thankfully, without the city centre prices.
My cut and blow dry set me back £29.95 and I know that I could have easily paid £50 and upwards elsewhere in a similar establishment.

The only disappointment of the whole experience was that, although it is well advertised that they use Aveda products, I had to ask about all the other wonderful initiatives Katie has put in place.

I firmly believe that they should be making more of their excellent eco-activities and shouting it from the rooftops.
It feels worth pointing out that turning a chemically intensive and electricity hungry activity such as hairdressing into one that tries its best to work with nature is no easy accomplishment, but LEAF, headed up by Katie Caisley has led the way and all involved should feel justifiably proud of themselves.

LEAF Hairdressing Salon can be found at 200a Heaton Rd, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE6 5HP
Telephone: 0191 276 6026