Whether the goal is to use fewer chemicals, cure dandruff, tame difficult hair, or save money, more and more people are turning to natural shampoo alternatives and believe it or not — even skipping shampooing all together. Many feel that trading sulfate-based shampoo for natural shampoo makes hair more manageable and improves scalp health. Some even claim that natural methods cure dandruff, flaking, split ends, and even hair loss — and while all the positive effects of natural shampoos may not have been tested extensively in clinical studies, the ingredients in regular shampoo have been tested and the results are alarming:

The most commonly used detergent is sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) or sodium laureth sulfate (SLES). This type of detergent is found in all sorts of cleansers from body wash to engine degreasers. Although it is still on the FDA’s “Generally Regarded as Safe” list, SLS and SLES have been found to cause skin damage, diarrhea, labored breathing, and eye irritation. According to studies done by the American College of Toxicology, both SLS and SLES may cause malformation in children’s eyes — and despite this study most adult shampoos and some children’s shampoos (such as L’Oreal Kids) still contain SLS.

Shampoos that claim to ‘reduce buildup’ typically contain stripping agents designed to remove excess oil and dulling waxy or dirty residue. Among the most commonly used stripping agents are: propylene glycol (PG), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and isopropyl alcohol. PG is a particularly scary solvent that is also used in antifreeze. In many applications PG is used to break down protein, yet hair and skin are made of protein! Not only does PG strip out oils, wax, and silicone (common conditioning agents), but it has the potential to cause skin irritation and hair follicle damage. PEG is even a common ingredient in other household products that claim to remove grease such as spray-on oven cleaner. And although it is an effective oil-removing agent in shampoo PEG also known to be damaging to the immune system and potentially carcinogenic. Finally, isopropyl alcohol is not only drying to your hair but a hazardous solvent in high concentrations. Isopropyl alcohol is a petroleum-derived substance that is said to be dangerous if inhaled or ingested and exposure can cause: headaches, flushing, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting.

Meanwhile, conditioning agents are often added to counter the drying effects of solvent ingredients, to make hair “more manageable” or lustrous. Even if a shampoo that is not labeled as ‘shampoo plus conditioner’ may contain any number of oils, waxes, polymers, or even silicones. Many shampoos contain silicone emollients like: dimethicone and quaternium-80. Silicones are known to coat hair and skin creating an air proof barrier — and while it might create a beautifully smooth texture on skin or hair for a short time, it has been shown to not allow the absorption of oxygen on the skin and restrict the release of toxins; some studies have also indicated that it may accumulate in the liver and lymph nodes! While most scientists agree that silicone is not harmful in personal care and cosmetic products, the use of these items tend to require the use of the aforementioned dangerous stripping agents in shampoo — in a constant circle of thick buildup and dangerous cleaning agents.

But that is not all — In the attempt to make shampoo last longer on the shelf and to prevent the growth of bacteria or fungus from months of storage even before it is sold, companies add preservative ingredients — the most common of which is formaldehyde. In clinical studies formaldehyde has been proven to cause nasal and lung irritation, rashes, and allergies. Additionally, formaldehyde is a known carcinogen. Formaldehyde is often disguised in your shampoo labeled as imidazolidinyl urea or dmdm hydantoin which, although different chemicals, both release formaldehyde. Other side effects of exposure to formaldehyde or formaldehyde-donors can include dizziness, headaches, coughing, and can trigger asthma. Phthalates are another commonly used preservative ingredient which has been proven to interfere with the hormone system. Also, Methylisothiazolinone (MIT) — sometimes erroneously referred to methylisothiazoline on many ingredient lists — is commonly used in shampoos to prevent bacterial growth. MIT is a known neurotoxin that have been shown to cause damage to brain cells in animal and in-vitro studies.

In addition to all the other chemical ingredients in shampoo, companies use additives to create a better consistency and texture. There are three common additives that are designed to produce a foaming texture: diethanolamine (DEA), momoethanolamine (MEA), and triethanolamine (TEA). Recent studies have exposed DEA, MEA, and TEA not only as extremely carcinogenic but absorbable through the skin. According to Dr. Samuel Epstein, Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Illinois, “repeated skin applications of DEA-based detergents resulted in a major increase in the incidence of two cancers – liver and kidney cancers”.

Do we really want to lather, rinse and repeat daily with such dangerous chemicals?

Armed with this knowledge, a natural shampoo should be a natural choice; and there are numerous natural shampoos or shampoo alternatives available that are right for your hair and your lifestyle!

Many people enjoy shampoo’s ease-of-use and can simply replace their chemical-filled shampoo with organic or natural varieties. Whether you are battling dandruff, dry, oily, knotty, curly, or flat hair — there are natural and chemical-free shampoo alternatives for each need. Look for brands like: Avalon Organics, Burt’s Bees, Dr. Bronner’s, Dr. Hauschka’s and Yarok. Which can be found in natural and health food stores as well as online. And while some may cost a little more than conventional shampoos, they clean just as well, come in different formulas to treat each type of hair, and are well-worth the piece of mind.

If you prefer the slow, home-made shampoo alternatives you’ll certainly enjoy low price, ease of use, and great results. There are a million-and-one recipes out there that include ingredients like: baking soda, vinegar, yogurt, fruit, avocado, oils, lemon juice, rose water, or chamomile — yum! These ingredients are much more gentle, totally natural, and sound downright tasty. Combined in different ways, simple household ingredients can become a shampoo that is tailored perfectly to your hair type — Directions to make your own shampoo can be found online.

If you are worried about the hidden effects of your shampoo on your health then it is time to start looking for more natural alternatives to make your hair look and feel amazing without the chemicals.

Image courtesy of Smart Style Guide.

Quilts are a symbol of slow life — for ages quilters have stitched together scraps from cherished garments rendered un-mendable, combined with love and attention they become a new treasured item that only gets better with time.

Although the weather is getting warmer, you can still slow down and snuggle up with a special quilt — wrap up in a quilt on a frosty spring morning with a cup of tea, use one for a colorful tablecloth, or take a quilt for a sunny picnic in the grass!

Quilts are undoubtedly the ultimate slow-home accessory:

Images courtesy of Quietude, Philigry, bead and buttons, Olive and Ollie, Angry Chicken,
A life in lists, bringing design home, Runningtowardstillness, two little dicky birds, ManMade,
Blue is Bleu, believe magic, sew love to sew, Rabbit Style News, What’s THAT Gonna Be?,
and noelleodesigns.

If we can unclamp our imaginations and recognise that creating products which foster long term value in society more broadly actually benefits our businesses, then maybe we will stop sabotaging our sector’s prospects for sustainability.

Kate Fletcher [Author of “Sustainable Fashion & Textiles”, Sustainable Designer, Slow Fashion Consultant, Public Speaker & Reader at London College of Fashion’s Center for Sustainable Fashion]

According to research and industry statistics, the average American woman spends over $2000 annually which adds up to the staggering $41 billion women’s apparel industry and $13 billion cosmetics industry revenues.

*Data based on industry reports, statistics, and surveys by: Plunkett Research, IBIS World, One Poll, & She-Conomy.
**Shopping statistics based on study by One Poll represents time shopping for all categories (including apparel, groceries, healthcare/insurances, home items, etc.).

The perfect blend of art and science — Infographics are a much more exciting way to present scientific data and
show comparisons of our consumption, resources, and habits than reading some stuffy report. We encourage
you to peruse this visually striking and informative graph — hopefully you’ll learn something about the world
around you and reflect on your own shopping habits as well. Enjoy & stay tuned for more to come!

This year we hope you feel compelled to do something good for the earth, even in a small way:

Today please try to carry your own reusable shopping tote to the store, turn off the lights when you leave the room, enjoy a beautiful bike ride or walk instead of driving,  or maybe pick up just one piece of litter and recycle it! You can even have a Picnic for the Planet — there are picnics being hosted all over the world, join one of these posted on The Nature Conservancy’s website or have your own — what fun!

Have a happy Earth Day!

Rebecca was “born and raised about one watershed away” from her current home in San Geronimo, which also happens to be the home of Fibershed. She was raised primarily by her great-grandmother who was a “crocheter and a knitter and a sewer”. Her great-grandmother imbued her with a real sense of what it means to live sustainably, and to be connected to the particular place that one calls home:

She was the second generation [of our family] to live in that water shed, and I was the fifth. And we were [living] literally within a half a mile of the watershed where she spent her summers as a child- canoeing and swimming and camping. She knew the landscape really well and she translated that to me- plant life, care and land management practices.

Having been raised in a household that really made use of “this depression-era resource management” gave Rebecca the foundation of a lifelong interest and respect for stewardship and the handcraft that can go into making clothing.

After studying textiles at the University of California in Davis (a school that focuses heavily on agriculture), Rebecca decided to merge these two passions. She headed out and “traveled across the country studying native naturalized and cultivated plant species that provide botanic color”.  During her travels, she also encountered a number of sheep and alpaca farms, and realized that “these colors and fibers were not showing up in textiles anywhere” in the American apparel market. She started to develop the idea that someone could “create a wardrobe around domestically raised fibers and American grown color”.

Thus began the inspiration for the one-year, 150 miles project, which eventually developed into the Fibershed non-profit organization. Rebecca wanted to raise awareness about the fact that many of the fibers used in our apparel can be found in own communities. She points that most of our textiles literally come from some of the same sources as our food. We’re literally “wearing carbohydrates and proteins” she says! Rebecca felt that “the essence of fashion was totally disconnected from biology”, and wanted to help people understand that the fibers that make up their clothing could literally come from the same fields as their dinners.

The Fibershed project has found it very useful to make the connection between developing and wearing local textiles and the locavore food movement. The food industry has been significantly changed by this shift in awareness, and Rebecca hopes that the apparel industry will be similarly invigorated once more awareness is built.

However, Rebecca points out that many folks who are deeply engaged in the lifecycle of their food often don’t think much about the clothing they put on their backs. As she recently said to a group of green investors –

How many of you love fossil fuels? Bt cottons and GMO‘s? Feedlots? The irony is that you’re wearing Bt cotton, feedlot shoes & belts, and the dyes used in all of them come from fossil fuels. The great irony is that you’re wearing all of the things that you disdain.

So she set out to spend 365 days wearing nothing but local fibers, in order “to show people that this is physically possible”. There were many challenges (like finding underclothing, and keeping up with the constant darning of hand knit socks!), but also many successes in developing a network of farmers and artisans, as well as folks who were interested in learning more.

In order to support this community, the Fibershed group set up education days where anyone who was interested could learn techniques like dying or carding wool. These skill-share days lead to a strong community, who have now been able to set up the Fibershed Marketplace, which serves as a place to engage with the Fibershed artisans, and buy materials directly from the source.

I asked Rebecca what kind of reaction she got from the public about her year-long project, she told me “everyone thought that [I was] just a Northern California ecological experiment. Basically saying that I was just interested in my navel. And it was a personal project, but I think people got the impression that it was narcissistic.” She’s found, though, that people became really interested in her project, once they realized that her local model is actually workable and applicable to larger communities.

Rebecca finished her year long project in September of 2011, and is happy to be back to wearing organic cotton underwear! Now, she’s focused on expanding the awareness of the lessons learned from the project, and the development of the Fibershed non-profit and Marketplace. “It is meant to be so much more than clothing one person!”

Fibershed will be focusing more on educating the wider public through a speaking tour in the Bay Area, as well as hosting fashion shows, developing events and providing Lifecycle Analysis metrics that clearly show the benefits of the Fibershed model. Fibershed is “trying to transition, and use to momentum from the project to build a stable sustaining non-profit organization that is supporting a host of for-profit businesses.”

Rebecca stresses that there are things to be learned from the companies who have developed the existing and massive trans-national supply chain. She envisions “a laboratory [working] toward what the earth can produce and what the technology can manipulate those raw materials into, and then… what’s affordable. All three of those pieces are crucial…[It's a three way process, combining] imagination and human vision, vetted by technology, biology and what the eco system can provide .”

She and the Fibershed artisans work toward innovation “to create new equipment that would create new spinning frames, new carding equipment… to reflect how technologically advanced we are!” And Fibershed particularly seeks relationships with product designers and developers who can help educate on the innovations that have been used to enhance the quality of manufactured goods. As Rebecca says “I think the beauty will be in merging the concepts of a Fibershed and the concepts of industial production- teasing out what’s useful in [both models].”

Not surprisingly, there’s a lot on the horizon for Fibershed. The Marketplace will soon spin off into its own business, creating green jobs within the San Geronimo community (and beyond). It will become separate from the non-profit, which will focus more on education, and keeping a network of farmers and artisans alive & well. Rebecca proudly announced that 10 Fibersheds have started within the last year- across the US and Canada by people who are involved in textile communities.  She hopes to support many new Fibershed communities, particularly in urban areas. Fibershed is working on a branding campaign that will help streamline the process of setting up a Fibershed community in the near future.

It’s clear that Rebecca and Fibershed have a lot of work to do, in order to spread awareness and develop the infrastructure to build the kind of local economies that she envisions.“These things are going to need to be loved, owned & operated by the community”.

The good news is, that in Rebecca and in Fibershed, we’ve got some pretty good advocates for learning!

Images courtesy of Fibershed.

It’s amazing to think that a hundred years ago, at the birth of ready-made clothing as we know it, women would drop six hundred dollars for a Parisian knock-off. Today a fashionable dress is cheaper than a bag of dog food. How did we get here?

Elizabeth L. Cline [Journalist and author of "Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion"]

We are very impressed by their commitment to the environment and to customers by offering 100% transparency on every garment. Check it out today!

Images courtesy of Honest by.

Once I realized the rain wasn’t a fluke, I immediately started researching Hunter boots, those are supposed to be the best right? They’re certainly the most popular. After browsing Facebook to see what my favorite eco friendly companies and blogs were up to, I found out that Ecoterre had been running a giveaway for a free pair of Kamik vegan rain boots — and although I missed the deadline, it prompted me to start researching eco-friendly rain boots — I started with Kamik, and to be honest didn’t have to look elsewhere.

The boots seem comparable to the Hunters, in appearance, but they are produced with a minimal environmental footprint. Kamik makes a variety of styles too, the Jennifer, which I purchased is tall and sleek, a boot you could wear out to dinner and not feel under dressed, but they also sell a more sporty, possibly more high functioning boot ideal for walking long distances. I have yet to walk very far in my boots, but they are pretty snug around the foot, meaning they won’t get left behind in a big mud puddle [yes, this has happened to me].

Lets talk about Kamik’s environmental efforts:

Over the past 30 years Kamik has taken several steps to lighten their environmental footprint, while continuing to make high quality outdoor footwear.
Kamik does this in four areas; Energy, Water , Material & Recycling.

Hydro generated power is used to run the machines and the plant which provides clean and renewable energy that ensures that no water is destroyed, no pollution is produced, and is reusable. In 2008, they installed low energy consumption lighting, and generated energy savings of 160,000 kilowatt hours — this equals the annual energy consumption of over 14 residential homes!

Kamik also installed two close looped water recycling systems via a cooling tower on the roof of the plant. This tower collects all the water before distributing it to be reused and recycled throughout the plant. All of the water that is needed to cool the machines and make the molds is recycled. The only time new water is added is to compensate for water lost from evaporation. This system saves Kamik from using 10 million gallons of water yearly, or enough to fill 15 Olympic sized pools.

Kamik uses synthetic rubber [which is lighter and more durable than regular rubber], and it’s 100% recyclable. Scraps are collected, decontaminated and recycled both onsite and through a local recycling factory. These scraps are used to make the black boots and black soles. Kamik collects over 600,000 lbs of material per year — this produced 175,000 pairs of black boots, or over 52 truck loads of boots. Every black pair of boots is 100% recycled — [something to consider when deciding on a color].

Although they encourage consumers to donate or give their unwanted boots to a friend, Kamik has a recycling program put in place as well. The program is simple; just gently wipe down your boots and mail them to VT or Montreal.

The last great thing about this company that I will mention, and was very pleased about, is their lack of packaging. How many times have you ordered something online, shoes in particular, and they come surrounded and stuffed with plastic? Since I’m desperately trying to reduce my waste I appreciated the one piece of recycled paper that came with my boots. Thank you Kamik!!

The Montreal factory produces over 3 million pairs of recycled boots each year, and they continue to look for new ways to reduce their footprint. Check out this inspiring company!

Images & video courtesy of Alexis Reale and Kamik.

Named 1 of “40 People Who are Redefining Green” (Grist.org), 2010′s “Company of the Year” (VegNews Magazine), 1 of “7 Best New Designers” (Ecouterre), & Winner of the Polartec® Apex Design Award, and nod’s by Oprah.com and Teen Vogue.

Therefore, its no wonder that amidst the mist, on a rainy Wednesday evening, the intimate retail space (nicely nestled in the burgeoning Williamsburg neighborhood) was packed for this highly anticipated fete.

“Animals are my friends, and I don’t wear my friends” ~Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart

Since age 8, Leanne has been an animal and environmental activist- making her first fashion statement by painting on tees “Spay and Neuter, Save The Dogs” in the 5th grade- and her cause has grown exponentially, into a full-fledged clothing brand based on her ethical conviction. Leanne is the Founder/President/Creative Director of Vaute Couture, an outerwear and accessories line made with 100% vegan materials. That’s right, warm outerwear garments completely derived from animal-free materials-defying historical thought (that animal skin= superior warmth) and pioneering in fabric material innovation, like advanced textured Polartec® fabric (for outer shell) and “vegetable ivory” buttons made from the Tagua nut. Additionally, all VC apparel is manufactured in USA using fair trade practices.

Fair trade, domestically made, animal cruelty free- and the cherry on top — everything is SUPER CUTE!!!!!!

The opening was packed, (now you see why) in addendum to the eco-lux coats, super soft sweaters with adorning animal silhouettes, live art installations by local artists, organic spirits and vegan delectable delights — Vaute Couture is the first 100% vegan apparel label to launch a full-fledged store in the US! Now that’s epic!

Check out pics below from the event, and please check out the VC website and support the movement, even if you are not a vegan (I’m not, but strongly considering) you can still patronize the efforts- slow fashion encompasses diverse forms but for a common cause, produce apparel that is ethically sound (to protect humans and animals) and environmentally safe!

Images courtesy of Vaute Couture.