How much does it cost to have products assessed in Green Salon?
0 DKK.
What does it cost to get products included on Green Salon’s product lists, e.g. The positive list?
0 DKK
Why are perfumes accepted in Green Salon?
In Green Salon, we have chosen not to fight against ALL chemicals at once. Instead, we fight the worst chemicals first. For example, the risk of PPD and PTD are serious and can be life-threatening. In non-serious cases, the damage lasts for weeks. The chemicals are common and one becomes sensitised for life. Perfume allergy is undeniably bad for those affected, but the risk is not directly life-threatening.
For products with perfume, the fragrances can be recognised when the bottle is opened, thereby more easily recognisable for people with perfume allergies. Therefore, we have chosen to accept perfume, but we recommend the salons to have a perfume-free series. This is in contrast to, for example, dye, which presence is not recognised before reading the list of ingredients.
I want to colour my hair, what products should I use?
The vast majority of hair colours in shops and at hairdressers are oxidative hair colours. Oxidative hair dye contain allergenic chemicals such as PPD or PTD. These chemicals are on Green Salon’s List of Banned Chemicals and must therefore never be present in a Green Salon. On the other hand, non-oxidative hair dye such as henna colour and so-called direct colours are accepted and used in the certified Green Salons.
Which hair colours can I use?
Green Salon’s regulations don’t dictate which products the certified Green Salons must use. Green Salon’s only requirement on products is that no certified Green Salon must sell or use a product containing chemicals from Green Salon’s List of Banned Chemicals.
This means, for example, that colours with PPD, resorcinol, parabens or PTD are excluded. These chemicals are perfectly legal in cosmetics, but since they are highly allergenic, all the Green Salons have decided not to use them.
This means that all oxidative hair colours are excluded from Green Salon.
But which hair colours are accepted in a certified Green Salon?
Of permanent colours you can use the so-called direct hair colours (also known as “new generation colours”), for the time being Elumen from Goldwell and Ingredicolor from Hair Team Company are accepted.
You can use many plant-based colours. Pure henna colours are OK in Green Salon.
Note that some companies write that their colours are organic, plant-based, etc. even though the colours have added artificial dyes to obtain dark shades. Often you can recognise these colours by the phrasing “100% grey hair coverage”. These hair colours, which call themselves healthy, environmentally friendly and mild, are in fact oxidative hair colours with PPD or PTD. Therefore, you should check that the hair colours do not contain chemicals that are banned in Green Salon.
What is PPD?
PPD stands for p-phenylenediamine. The EU Scientific Committee SCCS concludes that PPD is “extremely sensitising”, meaning extremely effective in inducing allergies. Many hairdressers have learnt this the hard way from the reaction on their hands. PPD exists in a number of variants, all of which contain the word “phenylenediamine” and all are moderate to extremely sensitising. All chemicals with “phenylenediamine” in the name are banned in Green Salon.
It is illegal to apply PPD directly to the skin. PPD is included in temporary tattoos, the so-called ‘henna tattoos’, and these are illegal throughout the EU.
What is PTD?
PTD stands for toluene-2,5-diamine. EU’s Scientific Committee consludes that PTD is “extremely sensitising”, i.e. extremely effective in inducing allergy. Many hairdressers have learnt this the hard way from the reaction on their hands, and many people have discovered the allergy after a hair dye.
Toluene-2,5-diamine and toluene-2,5-diamine sulfate are legal in hair colours in the EU, but are banned in Green Salon. Some suppliers claim that toluene-2,5-diamine sulfate is less harmful than toluene-2,5-diamine, but this is simply a myth.
How much does it cost to be part of Green Salon?
3000 DKK per year + VAT.
Why should food in a Green Salon be organic?
Green Salon wants to promote the use of organic food and therefore demands that serving in salons must be organically grown. Organic products are grown without use of pesticides, insecticides and artificial fertilizers: Pesticides and insecticides are used in agriculture to avoid diseases and pest infestations, but hereby these chemicals are spread in nature and they remove the food base for other animals. Pesticides may also seep into groundwater, thereby contaminating drinking water.
Independent organizations carry out on-the-spot checks in order to guarantee that food and beverages are organically grown. The food and beverages used in salons must therefore be labeled with recognized organic labels.
Organic labels can e.g. be
- KRAV
- The Ø label
- EU’s leaf
- Fair Trade
Why must detergents be eco-labeled?
Green Salon emphasizes that the impact of the salon on the environment must be as small as possible, and here washing and cleaning in clinics and salons play a significant role: As part of the use of detergents most of it end up in the wastewater. Thus, environmentally harmful substances must be avoided. To make the choice easy, Green Salon requires that all detergents must be eco-labeled.
This demand also applies for laundry detergents.
Green Salon recommends that you avoid detergents with perfume.
To our knowledge, some product types do not exist and cannot be made in eco-labeled versions, for which reason they are accepted. Currently, these product types are disinfectants and drain cleaners.
Eco-labels for detergents can e.g. be
- The Swan label
- EU’s Flower label
How is the control carried out?
The Green Salon logo and the Green Salon certificate guarantees that the salon complies with Green Salon’s rules. Among other things this means:
- All Green Salons are inspected every year.
- A number of harmful substances are banned in the salon, so people suffering from allergy safely can visit a certified Green Salon
- By the inspection it is controlled that products contain none of the Green Salon banned substances.
- The salon takes care of reducing its environmental impact through water savings, less energy consumption, the purchase of green electricity and the use of organic and eco-labelled goods.
- By the inspection we make sure the personnel knows the Green Salon’s rules
- By the inspection we look at environmental conditions and energy consumption and
- the possibilities for putting up new environmental targets.
Use of the Green Salon logo
The Green Salon logo is a trademark protected in Denmark and throughout the entire EU and may therefore only be used in agreement with the Green Salon organization:
All certified Green Salons are free to use the logo in advertisements, on websites, etc., and if they manufacture products that can be approved according to the Green Salons List of Banned Chemicals, these products must also bear the Green Salons logo.
Private companies may, by written agreement with Green Salon, purchase a right to use Green Salon’s logo on products if these products does not contain substances on Green Salon’s List of Banned Chemicals. This agreement includes that the Green Salon logo may not be used in connection with products that do not comply with the Green Salon’s List of Banned Chemicals. See For companies
PFAS
- PFAS is a group of appr. 10,000 chemicals. They share a special chemicals structure and have many uses. They a very persistent to breakdown and thus very long-lived, also in nature.
- The PFAS’s are everywhere in our environment, normally in extremely small concentrations.
- The combined effect (the cocktail effect) of PFAS is much discussed. That we can measure PFAS, does not mean it is harmful.
- PFAS is (to our knowledge) not purposedly added to cosmetics, but may be present in some ingredients as a tiny part of these ingredients.
- If PFAS is present in a cosmetic product it will be in small concentrations (maybe 1/1000 of a milligram per kilogram product).
- Until more scientific knowledge is present, Green Salon choose to concentrate our effort on other chemicals, with known and large hazards. At present Green Salon will follow the development of scientific knowledge and the governmental regulation on PFAS.