Invest In This, Not That: Three Sustainable Hair Swaps For A Better Planet (Part 1)
Remember those cheesy “Eat This, Not That!” books that touted no-diet weight loss simply by replacing bad food with better alternatives? We loved the concept and wondered how we could apply it to a roundup of better alternatives for something like hair ties and beyond (that was perhaps a bit less cheesy). So, we rounded up a three-part series of what you might call “Invest In This, Don’t Waste Your Hard-Earned Money on That” suggestions when considering sustainable swaps for your favourite hair accessories.
The Swaps:
- Hair ties
- Scrunchies
- Headbands
Whether you've made reducing waste part of your New Year's resolutions, or you're well on your way to zero-waste, having help along the way can really make those goals stick. First up: plastic-free hair ties!
Quality Over Quantity: Plastic-Free Hair Ties
It may feel like a steal of a deal to buy 50 hair ties for $10.00. But here’s the thing about cheap hair ties: they’re hard on our planet and on the people who make them. Conventional hair ties are made from petroleum-based ingredients like plastic and synthetic rubber. These ingredients are cheap for a reason: they’ve had many of the negative environmental and social impacts removed from their price. In economics, these are called externalities. Our global system of commerce is very good at scrubbing out externalities so much so that as consumers, it’s very hard to understand the true cost of any product.
In comparison, KOOSHOO hair ties are composed of organic cotton and natural rubber, ingredients that are produced in more sustainable ways, with fewer externalities. And, we’ve met the people who make our ties: they are really incredible humans. No supply chain is perfect, but we’re getting there and we think the price of our products reflects the true cost of production.
Doing the Math on Plastic
But we get it: you may be thinking, “KOOSHOO, I go through so many hair ties. I just can’t afford to make the switch or else I’d go broke!” We can totally empathize, and we’ve been there. But did you know that there’s a reason conventional hair ties don’t last very long? Plastic-based hair ties are often designed with an intentionally weak breaking point so that they’ll break easily when trying to hold back thick hair or even a tight bun. We’ve tested our hair ties in a lab and found that they have upwards of three times the breaking point of a conventional, plastic-based hair tie. Simply put: KOOSHOO ties stand up to a lot of stretching, outlasting the conventional at least 15 times over (likely more!).
As we’ve ventured along our sustainability journey, we’ve found that when we invest a little more for a quality-made product, we’re likely to attach more value to it and care for it long-term.
To put it another way, imagine there are two people, both who receive some chocolate (because who doesn’t love chocolate?). Person A receives 50 pieces of conventionally-produced, cheap chocolate. Person B receives five pieces of decadent, Belgian chocolate. Who do you imagine will savour their chocolate more? This is really at the heart of the adage “quality over quantity.”
The next time you finish off a pack of conventional hair ties, we’d encourage you to look into the Belgian-chocolate alternative (plastic-free hair ties) and consider all of the myriad positive benefits that decision will have. When you’re reading to take that step, you can peruse our plastic-free hair ties right here.
Coming up next...throwback cotton scrunchies, made sustainable.
