Where Does Your Hair Go After It Hits the Salon Floor?

You get the haircut. We sweep up the clippings. And then…where does all that hair actually go?

At Ash & Willow Eco Salon in Park Ridge, the answer isn’t simply “the trash.”

Your Hair Can Have a Second Life

Ash & Willow is a Certified Green Circle Salon, which means we separate and recover salon materials that traditionally aren’t easy to recycle—including those piles of hair left behind after your cut.

Through Green Circle Salons, recovered hair can be composted, repurposed into bio-composite products, used for environmental and humanitarian applications, and even studied for future clean-tech innovations.

Pretty cool next chapter for your trim.

And It’s Not Just Hair

Think about everything that goes into a busy day at a hair salon: foils, color tubes, leftover hair color, plastics, paper and single-use items.

Ash & Willow’s sustainability efforts extend to those materials, too. Through the Green Circle program, 85–95% of our salon waste is recycled and/or repurposed, helping keep materials out of landfills and waterways.

Used foils and color tubes can be cleaned and recycled. Excess color is responsibly processed rather than simply being washed down the drain. Even many everyday salon materials are directed into appropriate recovery streams.

Beauty Can Leave a Smaller Footprint

For us, being an eco-friendly salon isn’t just a label. It’s hundreds of small decisions happening behind the scenes—even after you’ve left the chair.

So the next time you see your stylist sweep up that fresh cut, you’ll know: your hair’s story might not end on the salon floor.