High Tech Meets Low Impact: The Eco-Friendly Nurture Salon

by Evelyn Ngugi on Monday, February 8th, 2010

We’re a month into the new year—how have you held up with those resolutions? Still striving to help your clients flaunt their curls? Reduce your carbon footprint? Both?

Alan and Natalie Mandarano of Nurture Salon in Portland, Oregon, are an example of a successful resolution to better the world we live in and leave you feeling beautiful in the process. Since 2003, this couple and the team have done just that.

Customers are offered tea and a heated neck wrap as soon as they walk through the door. Soothing aromatherapy adds to relaxing atmosphere, and the facility leaves small carbon footprint.

Alan Mandarano

“Nurture has a strong intention to heal and to be part of the solution on our planet and people feel good about supporting that,” Alan said. “It’s about more than outer beauty; it’s an inner feeling of bliss and dare we say, love, that we are going for as well. One more person feeling good about themselves has a positive ripple effect on our entire planet, yes?”

The salon engages in numerous “green” practices like recycling, composting, using environmentally friendly cleaning products, energy efficient lighting and shopping locally when possible.

“As time goes on, we have gotten better and better at ‘greening’ up our salon,” Alan said. “We save our hair clippings for Matter of Trust—an oil-spill-cleanup organization.”

The hair is recycled into special mats that naturally attract the spilled oil.

Nurture is involved in other organizations that promote the environment as well as charity. Used makeup and hair products are donated to the Sunshine Pantry, a food pantry in their area.

And the hair dye used—Organic Color Systems—is ammonia-free.

On the high-tech side, the salon has one ultra cool Freestylist Free-Floating Dryer. It hangs from the ceiling, uses less electricity than other dryers, but dries the hair faster. It also last longer, so you don’t have to toss numerous dryers in the trash.

The lights in Nurture are also special—SpectraLights—LED lights that last for more than 20 years and are completely recyclable.

Natalie Mandarano

While Nurture was created to be “green”, the birth of the Mandarano’s son, Guy, sparked them to step up their game.

“We bought the Prius as soon as we found out we were pregnant and we switched to Organic Color Systems right after he was born,” Alan said.

During Natalie’s pregnancy, she wore gloves and tried not to breathe in the ammonia of hair dyes.

“It became a bit of an obsession to do our part to ensure that there is a planet for him that can sustain his health and well being,” Alan said. “We wanted to make sure he has clean air and nature to enjoy for his lifetime and for his children’s children’s lifetimes.”

And as far as styling naturally curly hair goes, Alan and the whole team follow the same guidelines to ensure a healthy but beautiful cut.

“For curls, it’s VERY important to cut WITH the curl and not against it, Alan said. “Remember that curl is ROUND and you want to cut in a way that honors that.”

Nurture uses the Alan Benfield Bush technique—it takes into account the your personal growth patterns, head shape, hair texture (fine, medium, coarse), facial shape and desired style shape.

“We don’t as a rule recommend razoring or using texture shears,” Alan said.

And while Alan, Natalie and the whole Nurture team are certainly excellent and passionate about what they do, they are in no way an exception. All stylists can find small ways to make their salons eco-friendly.

They’re even available for consulting if you need help!

They suggest:

• contacting your city to get information on recycling programs.
• Become a member of groups like Matter of Trust.
• Change all of your light bulbs to longer-lasting energy efficient bulbs-that’s an easy one!
• Shop local, walk instead of drive whenever possible and take public transportation, even occasionally.
• Compost. Remember: reduce, reuse and recycle!

The Mandaranos strive to be environmentally responsible even in their home.

“We enjoy raising our son with love and careful guidance and want him to grow up with a sense of responsibility for not only himself but for his planet as well.”

And that’s what Nurture Salon is all about. Taking care of yourself, but also your world in the process. It’s never too late to make good on that New Year’s resolution.

“The best thing we can do is to be well ourselves and choose wisely in any given moment,” Alan said. “No one is perfect, but we can strive for excellence.”

Clients Increasingly Demanding Natural Products

by Michelle Breyer on Friday, September 18th, 2009

Greg Starkman, founder of Innersense Organic Beauty, quotes a statistic that should make every stylist and salon owner take notice: 98 percent of all consumers who use natural and organic products will walk out of their salon without buying a single product.

Instead, they will drive to their local natural foods store or log onto a natural products site to buy natural and organic shampoos, conditioners and styling products.

Too many salons are missing out on a major opportunity, says Starkman. But they don’t have to.

In July, Starkman launched the I Care campaign for salons so they have a way to spark the conversation with clients about natural and organic products.

“The message speaks directly to the organic consumer,” Starkman says. “Salons need to carry products that meets the needs of the consumers who are seeking healthier choices in their beauty products.

Starkman says the I Care Campaign will be ongoing throughout the year and seeks to draw in this growing and savvy segment of health-conscious consumers. It includes point-of-purchase materials strategically placed around the salon and on retail shelves with information about Innersense, and the “laundry list of ingreidents that Innersense is free of.”

The Innersense line

One of the biggest opportunity for salons, he says, is with the “Tweeners” - those clients between 18 and 25 who are among the largest segment to embrace healthy, environmentally conscious choices.

“It’s becoming a very powerful consumer base,” Starkman says.”

Starkman is no newcomer to the professional beauty industry. He grew up with a mother and uncle who were beauty professionals. As a teenager, he got an early start filling beauty products for his mother’s cosmetic line, which she sold at her Beverly Hills Salon. Over the course of his career, he worked for hair-care companies such as Joico International, Helene Curtis and Nioxin, most recently serving as president of the Institute of Trichology.

He became interested in the idea of creating an organic hair care line for salons, and launched Innersense in 2006. The company’s name came from a wise psychologist who counseled Starkman and his wife, Joanne. As parents of a child with special needs, they worried that they wouldn’t always know what to do. The psychologist told them to “trust your inner sense.” And they did.

Innersense is a certified green business, which means it complies with environmental regulations and has taken extra steps to conserve energy, water, reduce waste and prevent pollution. Innersense is an active member of Safecosmetics.org.

Innersense now has a wide range products for the hair and skin, and all formulas are made with certfiied organic ingredients. It is available in more than 1,000 salons.

“We’ve been growing at about 22 new salons every month that contact us,” Starkman says. “A lot of times, their clients recommend the products to them. They are driving their stylists to carry them.”

One of the biggest complaints about natural and organic products traditionally has been that they don’t perform as well as their counterparts. But Starkman says that has changed as new ingredients and formulations have been developed.

Starkman uses the example of I Create Quiet Calm Curl Control, one of the company’s best-selling styling products. Rather than silicones and plastics, Quiet Calm uses ingredients like shea butter, wheat germ oil, rooibos and certified organic honey to define and moisturize curls.

Starkman doesn’t see a line like Innersense necessarily replacing all other products within a salon but rather complementing it by offering quality professional products for those clients who want a natural, organic option.

“Innersense addresses the needs of a specific client,” he says.

If you would like to carry Innersense in your salon, contact Innersense at 1-877-254-7385.