Our Mission
To provide a luxury hair experience that is kinder to the planet, while also educating our clients on the newest non-toxic, eco-friendly products on the market. With our platform, studio el mar wants to be a positive force for change within our industry. We value doing the right thing for the right reasons and hope to inspire those who want to make a change to better their health and take care of the planet.
Beyond the Service
We are committed to always being conscious and finding ways to reduce our carbon foot print in our salon by being one of the first zero-waste micro salons in Dallas. We consistently trying to find new ways to lower our environmental impact. This is how:
▪ Aiming to eliminate single-use plastics
We created a minimalist refillable back bar at our shampoo station and the only plastic in our salon, as far as styling products go, is the brand Rahua. The used recycled plastic at the moment for their hydration detangling spray. Their mission is to eliminate all use of single use plastics and create more re-fillable options within the next few years. This company has a beautiful mission preserving the Amazon rainforest and providing income for the indigenous natives.
▪ We want to commit to only using Paper Not Foil as a foil alternative which are 100% reusable, bio-degradable, and 100% non-toxic to the environment.
▪ Reducing water usage
We’ve changed to a new Eco Heads Shampoo Head that reduces 60% of water usage.
▪ All our styling products are either non-toxic, eco-friendly, refillable, or non-plastic.
We don’t allow any aerosols in our salon to protect clients’ eyes, lungs, and skin from irritation.
▪ We are a member of the Green Circle Salons Program
Which eliminates 95% of salon waste including used hair color, color packaging, hair clippings, and any PPE.
▪ At the end of every year, we’ll be donating a fixed amount to our favorite environmental organizations for ocean conservation.
Why It’s Important to You: The Future, Nature, & Toxins
Our Future
Chemical toxicity is showing up in our every day environment like air and water. This affects our bodies internally, externally, and as well as impacts the very nature we need to sustain life and habitability.
We have a personal responsibility to protect our clients, ourselves, and the environment. We want our clients to know when they invest in our services they are also paying a service back to the environment. It’s a place to learn more ways to get involved without compromising on luxury like hair or beauty.
Nature
With eight million metric tons of plastic entering the world's oceans every year, there is growing concern about the proliferation of plastics in the environment. Despite this, surprisingly little is known about the full impact of plastic pollution on human health. Studies have found that certain chemicals in plastic can leach out of the plastic and some of these chemicals have been linked to health problems such as metabolic disorders (including obesity) and reduced fertility.
Toxins
A lot of typical salons who use professional styling products are unaware or are negligent of the ingredients used to make their products perform. Toxins in salon chemicals can be absorbed through airways, indigestion, and through the skin.
Such are: formaldehyde, toluene, methyl methacrylate, p-phenylenediamine and ammonium persulfate, toluene, ammonia, and methyl methacrylate, which are often found in the air of the salons. Most of these ingredients found in the products have been associated to causing stylists: asthma, dermatitis, nasal and throat irritation, neurological symptoms, and even cancer.
Salon workers can also absorb these chemicals through their skin and breathe them in as fumes which build up in the air of the salon over the course of the workday. Research shows that salon workers are at greater risk for certain health problems compared to other occupations. For female stylists, being exposed to these chemicals and toxins have been linked to causing cancers, neurological diseases (such as dementia and depression), immune diseases, birth defects, reproductive disorders (including a high rate of miscarriages), skin diseases, asthma, and other breathing problems.
More serious, elevated risks are that they are more likely to have babies with low weight at birth, miscarriage, and babies born with cleft palates from repeated exposure to hairspray and permanent wave solutions chemicals.
With this small amount of information, our professional beauty industry shouldn’t ignore the signs of how theses chemicals are effecting our health long term. We want to work behind the chair as long as we can. We will not stop trying to help create a cleaner and healthier environment for salon professionals as well as our loyal clients who come to see us regularly.
