Research/Impact Report

The challenges of sustainable development are becoming increasingly urgent, with the UK, like many other nations, struggling to meet its carbon-reduction targets, reduce waste, pollution, and energy and water consumption. Although many large companies are demonstrating increased sustainability awareness and environmental policies, in part due to requirements of new regulations such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment, and also due to their brand exposure, behaviour at the level of small companies and individuals has been slower to change. Understanding factors affecting behaviour at the individual level has thus been a priority for researchers. Research into behaviour change indicate that a key driver of behaviour is social norms (Cialdini, 2003) and attempts to change behaviour need to take into account social norms. Pro-environmental behaviours can be seen as social innovations as they require a change in behaviour. Hairdressing as a sector involves energy use, water use and toxic chemicals, yet pilot research shows minimal awareness of environmental issues. Targeting hairdressers to increase their motivation, knowledge and ability to engage in more pro-environmental behaviours thus presents increased opportunities for sustainability in the hairdressing sector.

The ESRC research was set out with the following objectives:

1. a) To work with individual salons and central hairdressing organisations in the hairdressing to identify environmental issues and explore ways to increase environmental sustainability i.e. reduce energy use, water use and use of toxic chemicals.

b) To build on the work with hairdressers and together with central hairdressing organisations develop a set of benchmarks for sustainable hairdressing.

c) To disseminate these practices and benchmarks to hairdressers via the websites and news letters and training guidelines of central hairdressing organisations.

d) To contribute to the evidence base on the types of measures adopted by SMEs and the benefits they realise as a result. This in turn will be used to provide further support to businesses in the longer term in the form of case studies and other learning activities such as the Sustainable Business Resource Pack (

e) To enable hairdressers to get on the first step on environmental certification,

2. a) To motivate and encourage hairdressers to model sustainable behaviours and disseminate information about sustainable practices to their colleagues and customers.

b) To explore the extent to which hairdressers participating in the project act as a diffuser of environmental information and practices to their colleagues and customers.

The research then has broad impacts across society and the environment.

Project Outcomes:

Two workshops were conducted and a third event, a follow-on workshop to award the participants STEM certification were conducted over a period of 7 months. The participants provided valuable feedback and their willingness to model PEBs and engage with their clients to act as diffusers of information. Our motivational speakers and innovative case studies provided the examples that demonstrated high-impact business savings within SMEs and independent salons. Participants were encouraged to believe that by adopting sustainability practices, such as modelling PEBs, switching to greener products and energy efficient techniques and equipment, led to monetary and environmental benefits to their business.

Feedback at the follow-on event from the participants indicate a high level of uptake of ideas. This has been made possible from the fact that the hairdressers developed their own action plans and ideas for their salons, to increase business potential, reduce energy usage, water and waste issues, at the workshops. At the events the participants also interacted with green suppliers and took away samples to see benefits of their products.

DEFRA’s (2012) recent report on evidence-based study into the benefits of environmental certification for SMEs presents new evidence of the financial benefits for a green business. At the follow-on workshop participating hairdressers were able to obtain the environmental certification (STEM) which increases their business credibility.

Project Impacts:

Through our events and workshops we have been able to gather insights into hairdressers’ interest and willingness to engage in sustainability issues. They unanimously agreed on overall benefits to business across all fronts. For eg:

•Cost savings across the salon on

-Reduced electricity usage, changing to energy efficient light bulbs, quick and efficient blow drying methods, usage of innovative products such as thermal caps that replace hood dryers, etc.

-Reduced water usage – fitting flow restrictors, efficient shower heads, efficient use of washing machine, use of disposable eco-towels, washing hair/shampooing once etc.

-Reduced use of hair products – shampooing not more than once, tips for colour mixing, innovative reduced amount shampoo dispenser, switching to greener, environmentally friendly hair products.

-Reduced waste- monitoring product waste, resend packaging back to suppliers/wholesalers, wormery – vermicomposting waste hair, reduce paper usage within salon, innovative tips for appointment cards etc.

•Health benefits to hairdressers from switching to ammonia free and greener products.

•Suppliers were able to discuss issues related to organic hair products and offer samples such as biodegradable eco-towels, organic hair care products for participants to take away and try.

•Hairdressers shared examples of reduced incidences of dermatitis with staff upon switching to organic colour products.

•Increased publicity and clientele confidence on businesses with green credentials, environmental certification etc.

Steps taken to maximise impact

The methodology was refined to include educators, trainers and HE institutes that offered qualifications in this sector as they played a key role in knowledge exchange and engagement with the businesses.

The workshops and events served as a platform for discussions between hairdressers, educators, trainers and policy makers on issues around standard setting, for eg, reduced amounts of shampoo usage, hair washing, blow drying etc. This has helped identify the gaps in this sector, in relation to the changing needs of this industry in the face of the economic recession, and also the larger issue of sustainability of small businesses, the importance of embedding sustainability within the curriculum, and also promotion of PEBs leading to more greener salons.

The project’s online presence through blogs, Facebook and Twitter along with project partners’ HABIA and Habia Skills Academy, have helped disseminate the feedback and findings from the workshops and events. Articles about the Green Salon Makeover project were published in leading industry magazines such as Hairdressers journal and local newspaper Southern Daily Echo.

Extent of Impact

Independent hairdressers who participated in this project have gone ahead with implementing small changes and modelling PEBs within their salon and to their clientele. There exists opportunity for the regional hairdressing federations and local authorities to embark on environmental audits in the following months, within this sector to measure the true extent of change.

HABIA and Habia Skills Academy, who are key project partners, are keen to take the Green Salon Makeover project forward and build it into their educators course and Habia Skills Academy’s ‘train the trainers’ courses.

Value of Impact to user and wider society

  • This research helps in meeting the targets set by the UK Government (Dec 2008) to reduce emissions by 80% below the 1990 levels by 2050. Directly, as the aim is to enable the hairdressing sector to reduce their environmental impact in terms of reducing consumption of energy, water and toxic chemicals. There would be a more long-term effect in terms of developing social norms of pro-environmental behaviour in the wider population. There are also indirect impacts as we aim to determine the most effective strategies to enable SMEs to reduce their environmental impact and to explore the efficacy of a bottom up social marketing approach to pro-environmental behaviour, as set out in the original objectives.
  • Therefore learning outcomes from this project will assist policy makers at Global, European, National and local level to design effective initiatives to promote pro-environmental behaviour. For example, this bottom-up social marketing approach could also be extended to include other individuals who by virtue of their wide and diverse social network based on their occupation are in a position to model and thus ‘norm’ pro-environmental behaviours (e.g. taxi-drivers). The cost savings and positive business impact, by adopting PEBs and energy efficiency measures, could be extended to other high-energy usage SME sectors such as the printing industry or the catering/food industry.
  • The participating hairdressers benefit by achieving benefits not just through cost savings, but through reputation enhancement, increased attractiveness to customers who value sustainable companies, positive employee responses and staying ahead of the increasing body of environmental regulation. In particular they will gain membership of the SE Business Carbon Hub and the Steps to Environmental Management (STEM) environmental certification which is specifically designed for SMEs. Working with other community groups also increases social capital and networking opportunities which can be key factors in local business success (Granovetter, 1985, Fuller 2006).
  • The SE Carbon Hub and Kent County Council who run STEM benefit from meeting their targets to recruit small businesses.
  • The online presence of this project, i.e the blog, Facebook and Twitter are expected to remain as a platform for networking and all participants, suppliers, educators, trainers who took part are encouraged to share their experiences on the social media platform. They are also encouraged to share their experiences and knowledge gained with other businesses via their personal contacts and networking groups, so that other businesses can also benefit indirectly as useful advice and information is fed into the business network.
  • Suppliers of eco-friendly hair products will benefit through increased sales.
  • The local community will benefit from reduced pollution and waste achieved as a result of the project.
  • Hairdressers are at increased risk of certain cancers and skin conditions due to the toxicity of many hair dye products (Gube et al, 2011; Harling et al., 2010), and therefore benefit from decreased health risks as they switch to less toxic products.
  • Customers of participating hairdressers benefit from exposure to more pro-environmental practices in the context of hair care, which may enable them to identify less toxic products for their own use, with corresponding health benefits, and cost benefits relating to decreased energy and water consumption.
  • One issue that came up in the events was that hairdressers felt they were not being taken seriously as a profession. The hairdressers welcomed the opportunity to gain environmental certification, not just as a means to publicise their commitment and credentials in this area, but also as a means to raise the status of the profession as a whole. Taking on the role of diffusing advice relating to sustainable and environmentally friendly hair care practices made many hairdressers feel that they could be seen as a professional hair care consultant, rather than as stereotyped ‘blonde with scissors’ (to quote one of tour attendees!). Clearly being seen as a professional adds to the perceived value of the service hairdressers provide with corresponding business benefits such as ability to charge higher prices and gain greater respect.

Future Impact

The on-going collaboration with HABIA and VTCT in terms of training the trainers will help to embed sustainability in the profession in the long term. For example a Knowledge Transfer Secondment is taking place to allow our researcher to work with VTCT to embed sustainability into their hairdressing qualifications. The Ted talk ‘What hairdressers can tell us about sustainability’ is also available for all trainers to use as a resource to disseminate ideas relating to sustainability in the hairdressing sector.