Walk into Scisters Salon & Apothecary in La Mesa, California, and the first thing you notice is what is not there. No wall of glossy plastic bottles, no sharp chemical tang. The only waste bin is a tiny basket, mostly collecting coffee cups and gum wrappers brought in by clients. Instead, shelves are lined with large refill containers of shampoo and conditioner, houseplants dot the space, and hair clippings are swept away for compost.
Co-founders Melissa Parker and Easton Bajsec opened the salon 15 years ago and have since built it into one of the region's most prominent low-waste salons, diverting up to 99% of its refuse from landfill. This is no small feat, given that salons in North America send an estimated 63,000 pounds (about 28,600 kg) of hair to landfill every day, along with hundreds of tons of used foil and leftover hair dyes, according to Green Circle Salons, a Canadian recycling and recovery organisation.
The turning point came after Bajsec watched a documentary about the zero-waste movement and Parker developed serious health problems linked to prolonged exposure to salon chemicals. A naturopath warned Parker she might have to stop working as a hairstylist. Rather than walk away, the pair set out to transform their business. They stopped offering perms because the treatments release formaldehyde, a carcinogen, and moved away from big-name products delivered in plastic bottles.
In 2019, they launched their own product line, Element, made in a California lab and sold in refillable glass and aluminium containers. The salon encourages customers to use its 'jar library' – a collection of donated and sanitised pasta sauce or salsa jars – for refills. Parker and Bajsec also enrolled in online formulation courses to develop the line, which took years of stability testing and packaging design.
Parker and Bajsec have staked their business on the idea that beauty does not have to come at the expense of the planet or the people in the salon. With seven employees and up to 22 customers a day, Scisters proves that a low-waste approach can be both sustainable and commercially viable.
