Aveda And Danielle Green Turned My Hair and Face Green

And So Can You…

STORY AND PHOTOS BY: ROBIN ROTH

Aveda was one of the first beauty companies to endorse a set of principles designed to encourage greater environmental responsibility in business known as, The Ceres Principles.

Aveda Corporation is a company headquartered in Blaine, Minnesota, that manufactures organic skin care, cosmetics, perfume, hair care products, and lifestyle products from the essential oils of flowers and plants gathered from around the world. The company trains students in cosmetology, and esthiology at the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis, New York City, Washington, DC, and many other cities. Aveda was founded in 1978 by Horst Rechelbacher. In 1997, he sold the privately held Minnesota-based company to Estée Lauder Companies Inc., based in New York. Today, Aveda also maintains a variety of partnerships with salons and spas that use their products. Many of these locations also offer treatments certified by Aveda. The company trains students in cosmetology, and esthiology at the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis, New York City, Washington, DC, and many other cities.

What is so special to me about the green oriented Aveda is that the company sees beauty as a craft, not as a product result. Empowered by its unique Mission, Aveda believes that authentic beauty is one that works in harmony with the greater web of life. It does not qualify as beauty if it hurts any of the diverse life forms that the best beauty artist of all, Nature, created. You can’t ask for more dedication to the environment that that!

"Our mission at Aveda is to care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society. At Aveda, we strive to set and example for environmental leadership and responsibility-not just in the world of beauty, but around the world".

Aveda has an on-going partnership with the Yawanawa Tribe of the Brazilian Amazon. This tribe uses a red seed called "uruku", derived from the Urukum Palm, to paint their bodies for different rituals. This partnership has helped to sustain the Yawanawa Tribe while helping to bring attention to the plight of their disappearing rainforest home. In 1995, Aveda partnered with a community collective that the babassu nut breakers of the Brazilian Amazon had formed to obtain certified organic babassu for use in the creation of a foaming cleansing element known as "babassu betaine". Aveda financed the construction of and training for a babassu processing facility, a soap-making facility and a paper press for processing babassu fibers. Furthermore, Aveda does not test their products on animals.

All of this brings me to a very special and amazing young woman Danielle Green (that is truly her name, I kid you not), who we can all stand to learn from. Ms. Green is an award winning hair stylist and makeup artist, who has devoted her life to helping the environment. She explains to me, "I love what I do, so I don’t feel like I go to work each day; I feel like I am going to my passion. I try to give back and that is why I have always searched for the perfect way to combine my work with the environment. In addition, I also enjoy helping people to better their lives by donating my services and raising money for causes such as, The Hope for Lives Foundation". (An organization to help woman with breast cancer)

I asked Danielle, why Aveda? After she finished laughing she replied, "I wanted to get involved in a prestigious salon that would give me some power to change and alter how people view the environment. Through an incredible green product that works, I can also be involved and in a position to help and enlighten, the public on how we are changing earth for the worse. We all need to learn and understand what is going on here. We must leave our children and their children a clean, healthy, and safe planet that wewere given".

Danielle not only helped but was instrumental in opening the totally green, Seva Salon and Spa. "I can believe in the cause of giving, sharing and the environment each day that I go to work. I am very proud that I brought the salon its name which means, SELFLESS SERVICE; in essence, that is what the salon and I are all about. When I am behind my client, doing their hair with green in my heart, I feel I am giving something to my client, I call it HAIRAPY. I am not only styling and coloring hair, but I am healing through my creativity, and an environmentally safe product that we use exclusively. I hope that by doing my small part, it will help to aid the world. If everyone shared this view, how wonderful that would be, don’t you think? The owner of the shop didn’t know about Aveda products and all it stood for. After listening to me and trying the products, he not only saw how amazing they are, but realized how environmentally friendly they are, and he was sold".

Danielle Green a devout green, conscience caring person for the environment states, "Working with Aveda is a win-win for me, it makes me excited to enter the salon each morning. Using all the products and being a part of the mission (which is so awe-inspiring) makes me feel good. I know that when my client leaves my chair, looking fabulous (and by using a green product that helped me accomplish this), I have done some good for the universe. Furthermore, I feel magnificent knowing I have also done my part in something bigger then hair. It is so miraculous to know that I am helping indigenous tribes in the Himalayas survive. These tribes make Aveda from 100% wind energy from the ingredients to the packaging. One of my goals by living with a green mindset is that I hope with all my heart to be an example to others".

Danielle came by hair styling talents honest. She was taught at the age of seven by her mom who owned three Beauty Shops (which is what some of us remember that they were called in the day) how to tackle all types, styles and textures of hair. She literally grew up in the shops. "Twenty plus years in the industry taught to me by my mama, has brought me great satisfaction. I love what I do. I look into the mirror with my client in my chair and visually analyze aura, energy, their vibration and bring creativity to the moment. In addition learning how to build a business around what I love to do with the help of Aveda came naturally. I have been blessed with a beautiful gift: vision, inspiration, knowledge and power. When you leave my salon you will feel it too!"

As it turns out Danielle’s stunning and adorable daughter Miori, is growing up in a beauty shop as well. I found it remarkable that Danielle is already teaching her daughter to be green through her work.

Danielle explains to me, "Although I have taught my daughter to be green since the day she was old enough to understand, I feel that Miori came into this world with a natural earth consciousness and a talent all her own. Not only does she encourage me, but she inspires friends and family to recycle and not to litter. Miori is so interested in how to help heal our planet that she printed a recycle plastic caps poster off of the Aveda website to partner with Aveda in her own way at our salon and passed on the information to her friends at school. I encourage my daughter to be a leader in the world so in doing so, she can become anything her heart desires. I tell Miori, that I bet she will become a veterinarian, and she says, "No mommy, I want to be a hair stylist just like you!" She is always thinking about how to update individual hair styles as she is already an amazing stylist. Soon enough I will pass my tools over to her so she can take over.

In just a few years, you may be sitting in her GREEN chair for some HAIRAPY". I say, "You go girls!"

Just for your information, many mega stars use Aveda products with green pride, such as Oprah, Tom Cruise and of course the amazing beauty Angelina Jolie just to name drop a few.

Aveda states, "Authentic beauty cares for the environment which we inherited from elders and will leave to generations that follow us. Beauty cares for the society in which we live, enhancing harmony in the way we live and interact with one another as human beings. In order to be beauty, it also needs to be good. Beauty is the result, but also the process followed in pursuing that result. Said simply, Beauty Is as Beauty does".

To contact Danielle www.myspace.com/daniellegreen2005
For more info on Aveda go to www.Aveda.com  

For you very serious environmentalists here are some Aveda product facts:

They use mineral technology and certified organic rose and lavender essential oils. Aveda partnered with 30 local farms in South Africa to sustainably source certified organic rose geranium. Aveda developed the first naturally-derived salicylic acid from oil of wintergreen for the launch of its Outer Peace™ skin care line. Aveda introduced its first limited-edition Light the Way™ Earth Month candle, raising $500,000 for the Company’s Earth Month global partner. Aveda is the first company to incorporate 80-95% post-consumer recycled (PCR) high density polyethylene (HDPE) in all of its retail shampoo bottles (made from recycled milk bottles) reducing its use of virgin HDPE by 300 tons annually. Aveda is the first beauty company to manufacture with 100% certified wind power. Aveda has helped fund wind turbines. Aveda claims that it purchases enough wind energy to power its primary manufacturing facility. Earth Month 2008, Aveda raised over $2.3 million and raised over $2.8 million to support clean water projects in your community and around the world!