Author Archives: Use Me! Refill. Reuse. Repeat.

Introducing… Upfront Barber Shop and Salon

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Upfront Barber Shop and Salon in Exeter, NHThe Use Me! Refill. Reuse. Repeat. team is absolutely thrilled to welcome Upfront Barber Shop and Salon in Exeter, New Hampshire to our family of eco-conscious salons!

Upfront Barber Shop and Salon is a full-service salon and barber shop, offering “great prices on all hair services, including: color, cuts, and even old fashioned straight razor shaves!” The salon also has a shoe shining station and an oxygen bar.

We are so happy that clients can now purchase Use Me! Refill. Reuse. Repeat. products at Upfront Barber Shop and Salon! Visit Upfront’s website and Facebook page, and give them a call at (603) 583-5317 to schedule an appointment.

Location: 28 Front Street, Exeter, NH 03833
Phone: (603) 583-5317
Website: www.upfrontbarbershopandsalon.vpweb.com

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Eco-Chic Tip of the Week: All About Aloe Vera

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Benefits of Aloe VeraDid you know that aloe vera produces at least six natural antiseptics, which are able to kill mold, bacteria, funguses, and viruses? You can apply aloe vera gel directly to your skin and face for a multitude of health and beauty benefits. Here are some of our favorite ways to use this incredible super-plant:

• Treat and prevent acne by applying aloe on a regular basis.
• Use as a skin brightener: aloe can decrease pigmentation and dark spots.
• Remove eye makeup with aloe vera gel and a cotton ball. It will moisturize the delicate skin around your eyes and decrease puffiness, too!
• Apparently, Cleopatra used aloe to reverse signs of aging skin and wrinkles. Hey, it’s worth a shot, right?

Oh, and ever wondered why Get It Straight Gelée does such a fantastic job smoothing, calming, and soothing the hair cuticle? It’s partly due to the awesomeness of aloe!

(Source: Discovery Health)

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Introducing… Hair by Shyloh

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Hair by ShylohThe Use Me! Refill. Reuse. Repeat. team is absolutely thrilled to welcome Hair by Shyloh in Norman, Oklahoma to our eco-conscious family!

Shyloh Cooper is a talented hairstylist and makeup artist—she was the RAW Hair Stylist of the Year OKC 2012, and she won our 3-Min. 3-Pin updo contest a few months ago! We think she says it best in her über-inspiring artist statement:

“I love hair. I love color. I love make up. I love your smile when you walk out the door feeling more confident than when you walked in. You are beautiful, hair and make up artistry is my way to show you how beautiful you are when YOU look in the mirror.”

You can visit Shyloh’s service menu on StyleSeat to book an appointment, find her at The Hair Studio in Norman, or contact her for bridal or freelance projects. 

Hair by Shyloh - RAW Awards 2012

Hair by Shyloh – RAW Awards 2012

We are so happy that Shyloh’s clients will now have access to Use Me! Refill. Reuse. Repeat. products! If you live near the Norman, Oklahoma area, call or text (405) 413-9462 or visit www.hairbyshyloh.com to get in touch with Shyloh. And of course, network with her on social media:

Facebook: Hair By Shyloh
Twitter: @MissShyloh
Instagram: @MissShyloh
StyleSeat: StyleSeat: Shyloh
ModelMayhem: Shyloh

Location: The Hair Studio, 550 24th Avenue Northwest, Norman, OK 73069
Phone: 405-413-9462 (call or text)
Website: www.hairbyshyloh.com

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Eco-Chic Tip of the Week: Save Energy & Equalize Hair Porosity

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Did you know that a hair dryer can use up to 1,500 watts of energy in an hour? That’s more than some air conditioners use in the same amount of time!

Ways to equalize hair porosity

Don’t get us wrong, we love a good blowout. And, we know that hair dryers are an integral part of salons and creating some of the most sought-after hairstyles. We’re not saying you should put away your trusty heat styling tools—just consider ways to cut down on drying time and maybe even air dry once in a while! Believe us, it’s better for your hair and your energy bill.

A key component in drying time is hair porosity. Essentially, hair porosity is how easily the hair absorbs and releases moisture (check out NaturallyCurly.com’s The 411 on Hair Porosity to find out how porous your hair is). All of our products are porosity-equalizing—especially Get It Straight Gelée. The aloe and chamomile calm unruly frizzies, while the non-greasy, non-sticky formula works to ensure the hair shaft dries evenly. Get It Straight not only cuts down drying time, but it protects from the heat of your hair dryer as well. A win-win in our book!

Hair Porosity Equalizing ProductAdditionally, Get It Straight Gelée will still work if you want to try air drying for a change. The formula will equalize your hair porosity, whether you use a hair dryer or not. It will still eliminate frizz, calm curls, and smooth the hair cuticle. Don’t expect pin-straight locks if you’re air-drying, but Get It Straight will give you a more manageable mane, with or without heat styling tools!

Need more reasons to try Get It Straight Gelée? It’s vegan, sulfate-free, paraben-free, fragranced with essential oils, made in the USA, a heat protectant, it works on curly and straight hair—at a professional level, and it’s packaged in a BPA-free bottle printed with soy ink. Visit our website (www.usemeproducts.com) to order yours today!

(Image source: Urban Eve)

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What is a Good Sulfate Free Shampoo to Invest In?

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What is a Good Sulfate Free Shampoo?This is one in a series of articles where we will address eco-friendly hair care related topics. This installment answers the question, what is a good sulfate free shampoo?

Healthy, beautiful hair is really what we all want, isn’t it? Using a gentle shampoo free of sulfates is a great way to get healthy, beautiful hair. With more and more choices on the market, what is a good sulfate free shampoo?

First, what are sulfates anyway? Sulfates are the detergents used in shampoos and other personal care products and household cleaners that create suds and lather. Commonly used sulfates are:

  • sodium laureth sulfate
  • sodium lauryl sulfate
  • ammonia laureth sulfate

Soap bubbles are due to sulfates in shampooWhy use a sulfate free shampoo? Shampoos with these sulfates can be drying or stripping to hair and skin. Shampoo containing sulfates can be especially damaging to color-treated hair as well as curly hair.

So, what is a good sulfate free shampoo that won’t strip hair and cause scalp dryness? Use Me’s sulfate free cleansers contain gentle surfactants (dirt-removing agents) that are naturally derived from coconut, olive and other vegetables. This type of sulfate free shampoo is the best choice to cleanse hair of excess oils and styling product build-up. Free of harsh additives, the gentle cleansers in the Use Me systems clean the scalp without drying out the hair.

Sunny Subramanian, founder of Vegan Beauty Review, says our sulfate free Cleanser for Dry & Coarse Hair is “especially focused on infusing the scalp with extra love, since that’s where healthy hair begins. Don’t expect a sudsy, foam festival either. Embrace its understated yet highly effective formula and simply enjoy the results. It’s pH-balanced, sulfate & paraben-free (‘tis a big deal), and of course, vegan (smells nice, too).”

 

Kelly Bonanno of Savvy Suburban especially likes our Cleanser for Fine Hair. “I am happy to say that I found a fabulous hair care line. My hair was noticeably softer after using the Use Me cleanser and moisturizer, I love the way it feels and the best part is that it also behaved well. Some products make your hair soft but not very manageable, these don’t. They perform well, especially compared to many ‘eco-beauty’ products. They also smell gorgeous! My friend even said my hair looks super shiny. They call their shampoo & conditioners cleansers and moisturizers because they view them as skincare for your hair.”

When your scalp is clean, but not dry, it will grow healthy hair—think of fertile soil growing strong crops. When asking what is a good sulfate free shampoo, consider a gentle shampoo that cleanses the scalp but does not strip it of healthy oils, and be sure it says sulfate free on the label. A nourished scalp means healthy, beautiful hair.

Is there an eco-friendly hair care related topic you would like to see covered on our blog after What is a Good Sulfate Free Shampoo? Great! Just let us know by contacting us at info@usemeproducts.com. 

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What is the Best Organic Shampoo?

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What is the Best Organic Shampoo?This is one in a series of articles where we will address eco-friendly hair care related topics. This installment answers the question, What is the Best Organic Shampoo?

As an eco-chic company in the salon industry, we get a lot of questions like:

What is the best organic shampoo for my hair type?
Which organic shampoo will contain plant-derived ingredients, and still perform well?
How can I achieve the same look my hairstylist created, while using natural, eco-friendly products at home?

Well, we have answers for you. First and foremost, when deciding the best organic shampoo is, it’s so important to feel good about your hair and leave the house feeling confident. We created two shampoos with organic ingredients because we wanted to give our customers the most natural products possible, that also work at a professional level. Whether you’re a hairstylist or using the product at home, you shouldn’t have to sacrifice wholesome, organic ingredients for product performance—and vice versa!

Transparency is important to us (and hopefully to you, too!). We know that green gimmicks and vague ingredient lists don’t fool health-conscious consumers; when it comes to organic shampoo, we know the proof is in the pudding. You can always find each product’s ingredients listed on our website—visit www.usemeproducts.com/ingredients.html for more information.

Organic Shampoo with LavenderAs far as salon-quality products with plant-derived ingredients, all of the botanicals in Use Me cleansers are organic—ingredients like lavender, green tea, aloe vera, rosemary, and chamomile.

Check out some of the organic ingredients in Use Me’s cleansers. What is the best organic shampoo? The one that actually works for your hair type.

Both the gentle volumizing formula for fine hair and the ultra-moisturizing formula for dry or coarse hair contain:

  • Organic Sunflower Seed Extract to protect against free radicals;
  • Organic Green Tea Leaf Extract, an antioxidant that also protects from free radicals;
  • Organic Lavender Flower/Leaf/Stem Extract to calm and soothe the hair;
  • Organic Aloe Vera Leaf Juice, which helps seal the hair cuticle;
  • Organic Matricaria Flower Extract to add shine and luster to hair; and
  • Organic Rosemary Leaf Extract, which helps condition, tone and strengthen hair.

Ultimately, settling on which organic shampoo is the best will be determined by your hair type and your needs. You could certainly visit a healthy living store for an organic shampoo, but sometimes they don’t work at a professional level. Use Me cleansers are the pinnacle of product functionality and organic ingredients. Oh, and did we mention they’re sulfate-free and paraben-free? But more on that later!

Is there an eco-friendly hair care related topic  you would like to see covered on our blog after What is the Best Organic Shampoo? Great! Just let us know by contacting us at info@usemeproducts.com.

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Eco-Chic Tip of the Week: Make the Switch to an Eco Friendly Product

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The Essential Green You: Easy Ways to Detox Your Diet, Your Body, and Your Life by Deirdre Imus is part of a series to help you green up your act. In the book, there’s an eco-chic tip that really resonated with us: pick one of your most-used products and switch it to an eco friendly product. Simple, right?

We think that’s an easy feat—so here are two of our suggestions:

eco friendly productLaundry Detergent
Does your laundry detergent come in vivid shades of blue or green? It might be time to reconsider what you’re washing clothes with. Using a natural, toxin-free detergent will prolong the life of your clothing and ensure you’re not wearing chemicals. Try Seventh Generation’s laundry detergents, fabric softeners, and stain removers.

 

eco friendly product

Hand Sanitizer
Believe us, we love hand sanitizer—especially around flu season—but it often contains harsh ingredients. Dr. Bronner’s organic hand sanitizing spray is free of GMO alcohol and petro-carbomer thickener. With a short ingredient list (62% Organic Ethanol, Water, Organic Glycerin, Organic Lavender Oil), it’s one you can feel good about slathering on every time a coworker coughs.

(image sources: Seventh Generation, Dr. Bronner)

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Eco Friendly Hair Products: Refill, Reuse, Repeat

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Eco Friendly Hair ProductsThis is one in a series of articles where we will address various eco-friendly hair care related topics. This installment is Eco Friendly Hair Products.

To be eco-friendly is quite multi-faceted: in addition to choosing eco friendly hair products, we should all recycle, reuse, and be conscious of our carbon footprints. Many products in the hair industry contain natural, plant-derived ingredients, but that doesn’t always mean they were sourced sustainably. Nor does natural, earthy looking packaging indicate the contents are eco-friendly.

Here at Use Me! Refill. Reuse. Repeat., eco-chic is right up our alley. We’ve made it our mission to provide high-end hair care that’s good to the Earth. Here are some of the ways we are saving the world, one shampoo bottle at a time:

Eco-Friendly Hair CareRefill. Salons around the country have joined us in our eco-friendly efforts by installing our Filling Stations™. Each Filling Station™ is made from reclaimed wood and steel in Maine, and allows customers to refill their empty cleanser and moisturizer bottles in-salon. Every time you refill your eco friendly hair products at a Use Me salon, you support a local business and save a few bottles from ending up in the Pacific Garbage Patch.

Reuse. Our packaging is made of safe BPA-free plastic so you can feel good about reusing them over and over. Even with prolonged exposure to a hot shower, the plastic will never leach harmful chemicals (namely Bisphenol-A) into the products.

Repeat. We recently announced our newest eco friendly hair products: the RE:kit and the RE:fill! When you purchase a RE:kit (two cleansers and two moisturizers), you receive a free Use Me mailer bag. With forever-free shipping, you can mail empty bottles back to our headquarters in Maine for a RE:fill. We’ll fill the bottles at our Filling Station™ and send them back to you. See, it’s easy being green!

Sustainably Sourced Ingredients
All of the botanicals in Use Me products are organic—ingredients like lavender, lemongrass, night jasmine, violet, aloe vera and sunflower oil—and the beeswax in Sea Salt Matte Paste is sustainably sourced. The lanolin in Curl Up & Shine comes from a no-kill sheep farm in New Zealand, where the sheep are not raised for their meat, nor fed growth hormones to increase wool production.

Responsible Business Practices
In our offices, we make every effort to reuse what we can and recycle everything else. We reuse paper, packing materials and boxes, and we always conserve heat, electricity and water. All of our professional printing is done on 100% recycled paper and our promotional products are always made of recycled materials. When we ship our eco friendly hair products (through UPS), we pay a little extra to offset the carbon footprint—a small but important expense!

Is there an eco-friendly hair care related topic you would like to see covered on our blog after Eco Friendly Hair Products? Great! Just let us know by contacting us at info@usemeproducts.com.

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Natural Hair Moisturizer: Coconut Oil

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Natural Hair MoisturizerDry winter air. Color treatments. Heat styling. If you have naturally dry or coarse hair, the environment and your beauty regime can suck the life right out of your hair.

Enter the perfect natural hair moisturizer: Coconut Oil!

Coconut oil contains antioxidants (crucial to blocking free radicals), making it an ideal skin moisturizer. Don’t worry, coconut oil won’t clog your skin or make you oily, as it has natural antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. Use it as a natural hair moisturizer by applying a dime-sized amount to the ends of your hair and working upward. Leave in for as long as you’d like, and wash out with a gentle cleanser. We recommend choosing organic extra virgin coconut oil that’s non-hydrogenated, unbleached, and unrefined. This way, you’ll ensure your strands get the most natural hair moisturizer possible!

Here are even more reasons to keep a jar of coconut oil nearby:

  • It’s great for treating acne, eczema, psoriasis, and skin rashes.
  • Naturally remove makeup in just one swipe! Coconut oil’s moisturizing quality also helps with fine lines and restores skin elasticity.
  • Eat coconut oil for an improved complexion, a speedier metabolism, and shinier hair. Victoria’s Secret bombshell Miranda Kerr eats four tablespoons per day, if that gives you any ideas!
  • To protect, moisturize, and prevent stretch marks, rub coconut oil on a baby bump (or post-pregnancy belly). Especially when using organic, unprocessed coconut oil, it’s a safe alternative to many chemical-filled lotions and creams.

If you’re searching for a daily conditioning treatment, check out our natural hair moisturizer for dry and coarse hair types. It’s rich with organic, vegan ingredients to replenish and balance your hair, but the lemongrass scent is fresh and light!

Sources: BellaSugar, Huffington Post
Image Source: Safe Mama

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SLS Free Shampoo: Achieve a Healthy, Balanced Scalp

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SLS Free ShampooAre you looking for an SLS free shampoo? You’ve come to the right place! Sulfate-free shampoo has become quite popular, as health- and beauty-conscious consumers are turning to more natural hair care. The way we see it, everyone should be using SLS free shampoo. Sulfates are damaging ingredients that are truly unnecessary in cosmetics. You may know to avoid products with sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), but here’s why:

Sodium lauryl sulfate is found in about 90% of shampoos worldwide. Because of its detergent quality and cheap cost, the SLS in shampoo is the same ingredient found in household cleaning products and auto garages. In the same way it dissolves the grease on car engines, SLS also dissolves the oils on your skin. Shampoos containing SLS can cause:

  • Drying effects on skin and hair
  • Eye or scalp irritation
  • Tangled, split or frizzy hair

But you must be wondering how SLS free shampoo can actually clean the hair! Well, all shampoos need detergents. Our cleansers, for example, contain gentle surfactants to remove dirt, not your scalp’s natural oils. Use Me cleansers have been known to reverse skin irritation, to prevent excess oil production, and to maintain a healthy, balanced scalp. Along with the natural, organic ingredients in Use Me products, we attribute many of these benefits to the lack of sulfates!

We know that a healthy scalp means healthy, beautiful hair. Our SLS free shampoo works with your body, not against it, to nourish and holistically cleanse your scalp. Visit our website to learn more about our sulfate free products.