A Beauty Professional’s Garden: A Nearly Zero Waste Project

Pulp Riot Garden | 2021

Zero Waste (noun): “A set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused.”

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a perfect environmentalist. Sometimes I still buy products that come wrapped in plastic packaging, throw away a used container that I can’t recycle but could’ve repurposed, and I still use foil instead of investing in meche sheets.

I’ll argue my last-minute procrastination methods can sometimes make me an imperfect eco-conscious human, but it can also be beneficial in becoming more aware of what I can save to use in my everyday life (and save money on).

The last few years, my black thumb has progressively lightened to a shade of yellow as I’ve tried gardening and becoming a plant hoarder. Container expenses add up quickly and I’m honestly too bothered to go to the store to grab more, so I look to my mountain decently sized pile of recycled materials that I pick up from Visions Spa Salon and Kismet Studio weekly and see what I can use as I repot plants and start my spring garden.

SIDE NOTE: I’m completely new at this. I started another “nearly zero waste” garden that drowned in a week long rainstorm that Michigan hosted last summer and I didn’t have much room outside. This year we’ve got a whole yard with some soil that’s in dire need of extra nutrients and carbon, so we’ll have a little worm haven that will help with that (worms eating organics such as old food and fallen leaves and then pooping does wonder for soil).

I will be growing native Michigan flowers (such as Zimas and Black-Eyed Susans) to attract pollinators, loofah gourds (to replace sponges for the year), another gourd for the birds, catnip for the neighborhood kitties, and some herbs for the bunnies that live under our deck.

Let’s finally talk about the main focus of this article: what waste from the beauty industry will be used for this garden?

Color Tube Boxes

I’m starting my garden by planting my seeds (after they germinate) into the boxes that color tubes come in. I cut them in half, put in the soil, and will be putting them in an old cardboard tray to keep together. I’ll be using color boxes from Pulp Riot, Keune, Schwarzkopf, Pravana, Kemon and Max Eli. After the seedlings have taken root and grown, it’s easy to just plop them as they are in the soil since the tubes are just made of cardboard and cardboard degrades in natural conditions.

Prep work

Some of the boxes have a shiny overtone to them which is usually just wax so the boxes can still dissolve over time. If they aren’t disintegrating as quickly as I’d like, then I can pop the bottom open or easily pluck out the plant out of the box and put them in the soil. The exciting part for me is to see how the boxes will degrade and what notes we can take from it. Schwartzkopf boxes are made with sugarcane so my bet is they will degrade the quickest, but we’ll see!

Packaging Containers

Containers are good to use if the outside is not quite ready for crops and plants, which can be unpredictable when you live in the midwest (like I do) and need to take them inside. Bleach containers are great because they are sturdy and fairly spacious. All you need to do is poke some holes on the bottom of it and put something underneath to catch the excess water. We have Guy Tang, Sunlights Balayage, and Keune bleach containers to use.

(they are also great to use for potted plants)

Shampoo/conditioner bottles are also great to use. You cut the bottle in half and take the top half of the bottle, turn it upside down (nozzle down without the cap), and place it in the bottom half. It’s another way to have excess water drain out but also keeping it clean! We have a lot of different brands we can use, but I’m excited to use the Living Proof and Kerastase because they are spacious and Moroccan Oil bottles because they are tall.

Hair

Guy Tang potted plant prep

I’m interested to test out hair this summer for the garden. I’ve just recently started collecting hair from the foil bags from my beta salons and they are usually covered in chemicals, I’ll be trying a new concoction that will clean them so I can use them in my compost for nutrients and soil stability or as potting felt for the bottom of my plant containers to prevent soil rot.

I also have hair that I’ve been collecting from clients that I service on the side that are NOT covered in chemicals. I will be testing it in my garden for pest control. Most of the plants are for the wildlife to enjoy, except for my loofahs, which will be planted away from the other parts of the garden and will sprinkle the clean hair around them. Human hair is a known practice that individuals will use to deter animals, so now it’s my turn to try it out. What I will also be paying attention to is if it deters insect pests as well. The UK is using a banned pesticide for emergency use to combat a sugar beet virus, which is extremely harmful to ecosystems and pollinators like our fellow bees. It made me wonder if hair could act as some sort of pesticide for certain bugs… we will see.

Cheers to beautiful weather ahead!