While cruelty-free hair care started as a private decision, more people now think it’s a responsibility we all have to embrace. Although lots of consumers are choosing cruelty-free shampoo, conditioner, and styling products at home, they tend to forget about what happens in salons.
Do the masks, keratin treatments, hair dyes, and styling sprays at your favorite salon follow your cruelty-free beliefs? Sadly, many of the best salons are still using products made by brands that either perform animal testing themselves or by third parties. Even for a home salon, one can buy hair growth oil by checking the animal-testing procedure and certification of the cruelty-free product.
Want to be more ethical? Check out our guide to what you should question and consider before booking your next appointment.
Q1: Do They Use Certified Cruelty-Free Products
Speak to your stylist or ask the salon manager to verify that the hair care and color brands they use are certifiers, such as Leaping Bunny, PETA’s Beauty Without Bunnies, or Cruelty-Free International.
All the certifications require a lot of checks to ensure the supply chain is transparent worldwide. Should a salon confirm that its products have official certifications, it will likely be upfront about what it uses and treat its team well.
Should they brush off the subject or answer vaguely (e.g., “We use healthy products”), open their packaging, or look the brand up online? Many times, labels can be confusing and there’s no guarantee that “cruelty-free” is about kindness, not just selling products.
Q2: Hair Color and Treatment Brands Free From Animal Testing Policy
Some of these large companies that make hair colorants and smoothing treatments sell their products wherever animal testing is required by law. Therefore, they don’t meet the global definition of cruelty-free, despite what is written by their companies.
Ensure to find out the brands that are applied for permanent coloring, keratin straightening, glossing and repairing split hair. Research if those companies offer their products in China or jurisdictions requiring animal tests. Should this be the case, their U.S. or European labels do not qualify them as cruelty-free.
Q3: Recommendation of Cruelty-Free Options for Your Treatment
Once the foundation is set, try to motivate the team a bit more. Ask if they can offer a different product for the service you are looking for. If you receive keratin, a scalp detox, or similar hair treatments, request vegan or sulfate-free products from Oway, Maria Nila, Kevin Murphy, or Aveda (certain lines).
Many stylists are pleased when customers know what they want and why. There is an openness among many industry specialists to create products that fit today’s beliefs, especially as demand for them grows.
Q4: Can The Clients Bring Their Products
If your salon isn’t cruelty-free right now, you haven’t lost your chance to go cruelty-free.
See if you’re allowed to buy cruelty-free products that can be applied to your hair. A few ethical customers stick to their standards and profit from professional services at the same time. Not every salon allows you to bring your products since using them could affect liability or regular routines, although most small or niche salons say yes.
For this reason, you should call your salon in advance and ask them to use brands like Giovanni, Pacifica, Bumi Botanicals, or Shea Moisture.