The blurb
The rise of eco-conscious consumers has seen a growing number of “green” hair salons and beauty brands launch in recent years, but not all are as natural as they’d like you to think. Wimbledon Village salon Organic Masters, however, works exclusively with products by the trailblazing superbrand John Masters Organics, and has quickly gained a loyal eco-chic clientele.
The process
A few years ago I started examining the list of ingredients in my hair and beauty products, and guess what I found? Pretty much all of them—household brands as well as the really expensive stuff—were packed full of chemicals I didn’t like the sound of. I was washing my hair with sulphates—also used in industrial cleaning products and washing-up liquid—and running the risk of my hair and skin absorbing parabens, phthalates and polyethylene glycol, to name a few of the others I now try to steer well clear of.
Researching chemicals and their possible health risks opens up a can of worms and, even if it can sometimes be difficult to separate the facts from the scaremongering, the word ‘carcinogen’ is rather off-putting.
So what was the alternative? I turned to sulphate-free shampoos, but many of these still contained other nasties, such as dimethicone, a silicone that makes the hair smooth and shiny but causes a build-up that over time can make it brittle. And it’s non-biodegradable, so not very eco-friendly. I found that even high-end products based on “naturally derived” ingredients weren’t as natural as I first thought. Sure, the shampoo might contain herbal extracts, but alongside a number of components that are potentially harmful to us as well as the environment—not least fragrance.
So when I stumbled on Organic Masters in Wimbledon Village, I was excited to discover it has followed in the footsteps of John Masters, the pioneering hair stylist who developed the ammonia-free “clean-air salon” concept in New York long before others caught on. His brand of hair and skincare products, John Masters Organics, is the only one used in the chichi salon tucked away on Church Road. As you’d expect, the products are based on organic ingredients well known for their beauty benefits. These include plant oils that have been cold pressed rather than heat distilled, as the latter kills their therapeutic properties.
On the day of my visit, manager Luciano de Lima is on hand to cut my hair. We agree it needs a good inch trimmed off the length as the ends are quite dry. After shampooing it with the gently cleansing John Masters Organics honey and hibiscus shampoo and treating it with an avocado-oil-infused conditioner, he gets to work with his scissors while telling me about the products and colour used in the salon, which opened just under two years ago and employs a team of three hair stylists and a beautician.
With a decade and a half of organic hairdressing experience, Luciano is able to answer all my questions. He explains that totally organic colour does not exist, but the one his team uses is free from ammonia and low in PPD (a chemical found in permanent hair dye).
Before I leave he sprays my hair with a little leave-in conditioning mist that contains green tea and calendula and smells divine.
The results
My hair looks and feels smooth and healthy and I love the new more manageable length. I’ll book my next appointment with Luciano soon, and—despite the hefty prices—I’m stocking up on some of that lovely shampoo.
