Moss Is The New Green June 17, 2010

Greenbody Greenplanet has found another new home at Tina and Ryan’s new store Moss Envy!  Formally Twin Cities Green in Uptown, Moss envy has got some great new diggs and some great new products! (Ahem…) 

 

 

 

 

 LOCAL ECO-ENTREPRENEUERS OPEN NEW RETAIL CONCEPT: MOSS ENVY 

Where: 3056 Excelsior Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55416 

When: Grand Opening Friday, June 19th 2010 

“Moss is the new green!” says Alison Kaplan, local shopinista and author behind the blog Alishops.com. 

Three weeks after beginning the transition from their previous brand “Twin Cities Green,” owners Tina and Ryan North will open their new eco retail concept, “Moss Envy.” Located in the thriving West Calhoun neighborhood, just South of the Whole Foods on Excelsior Boulevard, Moss Envy will sell eco alternatives to everyday needs like furniture, home decor, gifts, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen accessories and necessities, jewelry, bath and body, baby gear, mattresses, clothing, building materials and more. 

June 19th marks Moss Envy’s public grand opening celebration including food, drinks, and giveaways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minnesota Salon Owner Helps Gulf Oil Clean Up with Matter of Trust! May 7, 2010

You’ve no doubt heard about it by now. From coast to coast,  from north to south, and even across the beautiful sea, the media is broadcasting about the most amazing grassroots campaign to help clean up the Gulf (although I have yet to see or hear anything from the cities???), and according to this recent New York Times article, the donor base of this now famous non-profit(the majority being salons and dog groomers) jumped from 35,000 to over 90,000 in just 3 days and donations are coming in from everywhere! I’m talking about Matter of Trust, (MofT) a non-profit organization that is protecting our beaches from the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf.

According to a Fox News Report yesterday, the oil is hitting the beaches in Louisiana and efforts to contain it are becoming difficult because of strong winds. MofT president, Lisa Gautier, explained to me yesterday, via phone conversation, that the plastic booms Unified Command has been using to contain the oil are breaking up because of strong winds. This puts Plan B into action- and Plan B is MofT booms and mats made from hair!! This is the most incredible recycling program, ever!

If you have been following my blog you know I flew down to donate my home (garage) in Venice (Fl) as a storage and drop off site. I connected with Lisa and things started rolling. There are 12-14 of us “warehouses” now set up along the Gulf Coast and everyday more boxes of hair arrive from salons and pet groomers all over the country. Mine are filtering in slowly as my address wasnt confirmed until Weds night but I am expecting Monday to be a heavy hitter. I have a friend staying at the house for deliveries next week so I will be able to fly home for a few days and then return the following weekend. As more boxes arrive we will be having Boom B Q’s and making hair booms! It is so amazing to be a part of this effort and know that something positive can come out of this. I’m doing what I can to get the news back to the salon and to get other salons in the Mpls/St.Paul area on board and I even have some of my Fair Do’s stylists dropping off hair or getting their salons signed up via my facebook and twitter pages! Thanks Beverly and Katie!

If any of you reading this have any connections to the media in the Twin Cities, please forward this information to them (I will try to get a press release written) as the more people know about this effort, the more hair we can get, the more booms can be made and more oil can be cleaned up!

From the Ritz in New Orleans to Sanibel Island! May 6, 2010

Hair is, and will be arriving for the next few weeks and strategically placed throught the gulf states. From The Ritz Carlton of New Orleans to a Pet Salon in Destin to a beauty salon on Sanibel Island, businesses and members are donating their garages and small warehouses to store the supplies which consist of hair, pantihose and netting. Lisa Gautier, of Matter of Trust, has said there is A LOT on it’s way but may be some sort of hold up with UPS. There is hair coming from all over the country and the last count was 450,000 pounds! The plan of Matter of Trust is to have the warehouses (like my garage) plum full of hair and if the oil is headed towards our area beaches, we gather together to make hair booms. The media is calling these BOOM B Q’s ! Once the booms are created, certified “hazmat” volunteers step in for clean up. They’ve broken this down into Waves 1 and Waves 2. Im in Wave 2.

It really is genius don’t you think?

As of this morning the oil is still contained in one area and is about 60 miles north of the gulf stream current. The weather is calm and they say 4 days before they’ll know if its heading this way.  It is so crucial that it doesn’t get caught up in the stream as it would head right over to the west coast, down past the keys and up the eastern seaboard. Everyone here seems to be sitting on pins and needles praying the weather holds. I know I am.

The beach is beautiful! May 5, 2010

Okay, for those of you back home, I’m not rubbing it in. Really. There is just SO much on the negative side of this oil leak that I thought it would be good for you to hear something positive. And see something positively beautiful.

If you’ve been following my blog, my tweets or on the salon Facebook page you no doubt think I’m down here knee-deep in hair clippings! Totally not the case, at least not yet anyway, just happy to push forward what Matter of Trust is doing in their efforts to help clean up the gulf. The momentum behind this has been stunning and the national press coverage this grassroots organization is getting, along with salons jumping on board and promoting to the media in their area – is beyond comprehension. It just solidifies to me how good people really are (and especially stylists!). If you listen to the news too much you can get pretty jaded about whats happening in this world, but just to take a look at this catastrophe and see something SO amazingly positive come from it, makes my heart just soar. I mean just think of it, all you have to do is get your hair cut to help out, and you do it anyway so it’s a win-win!

I’ve always been one to focus on the opportunity in a situation, instead of focusing on the situation at hand and that’s why I felt the need to be here and help in whatever way I could. Just get here, I thought, and the rest will unfold. Matter of Trust is a solution based organization and I appreciate what they are doing, not just here, but all around the nation and I just felt this intense drive to be a part of it, somehow, any way I could. Even if that means just dispersing the information back to you.  This crisis totally put them on the map. The world map. They have created the most amazing recycling program on the entire planet and it is their time to shine. And shine they are!

So what the heck am I doing? Well, I had been told my home was on the drop ship for the First Wave and stuck around the house today waiting for UPS, but there was no shipment yet. It is next to impossible to get a hold of anyone right now, especially when you don’t KNOW anyone…but after some serious detective work on my part I chased down a local contact and got some answers. Lisa Gautier from Matter of Trust finally called (which I couldn’t believe, cause the poor woman hasn’t slept since Saturday) and it sounds like hair will be arriving soon. Not quite sure what the next step is, but I’m sure that also, will unfold when necessary.

The Sarasota news is saying there is a spreading black haze, and I havent been to Siesta key yet, but Venice Beach and Manasota Key show no signs.The picture below was taken there at the Jedi tonight, and there were plenty of dolphins noshing dinner and surfing the waves. So far so good.

magnificent

Latest email from Matter of Trust May 5, 2010

From Lisa @ matter of Trust via my email:

WOW! Our salons and groomers have been helping us by talking to their local press. And now you have blown this out of the water! NY Times, ABC, NPR and Reuters have now picked up the story!

We are now orchestrating a massive movement that began with our Gulf Coast salons. They set up Boom B Qs (boom making bar b q parties) and word spread throughout the states and beyond.

At last count our generous participants have provided:

- Over 450,000 pounds of hair, now on its way to the Gulf

- Boom B Qs popping up in 9 States

- 25,000 + sq. ft of temporarily donated warehouses and private storage spaces near harbors and beaches

We are logistically staging supplies of booms along the Gulf, so we’ll be ready, wherever the spill hits

Participants receive updates and the latest addresses of where to send the hair for this and future spills

This is now about national recycling!

Matter of Trust is following in the foot steps of China’s 3000 year old recycling system for hair, fur & wool.

370,000 hair salons and roughly a 100,000 pet groomers – all cutting and sheering every day. That’s a lot fiber to create booms, mats and green jobs!

The thing about hair salons is they can’t be outsourced. You will always go to your local hair salon! 

 

www.MatterOfTrust.org to donate your hair, nylons and financial support to this hairy situation!www.MatterofTrust.org

Toxic oil sludge- to worm poop! How cool is that? May 4, 2010

Just got in to town, got some wine and food and put the lanai furniture out. Its humid down here and Im loving every bit of it!

So, everybody needs to check this out. Here’s what Matter of Trust  does with the hair that is collected from salons throughout the world…

1)Hair booms made from donated hair/ fur and donated nylons. 2)Boom inside nylons covered in strong mesh. 3 & 4) Oil Spill Hair Mat – Invented by Phil McCrory – These mats are made in China with purchased hair and can be purchased through OttiMat. Phil was a hairstylist and created these after watching the Exxon Valdez leak all over Prince William Sound.

And now  this is the BEST part….

look at the worms!

Matter of Trust is the fiscal sponsor for Thomas Azwell & Ryan Carney’s treatability study of hazardous waste oil collected by mats made from human hair clippings then detoxified by thermophilic compost of greenwaste. Finally, the mass is reduced by worms. After a few months the end result is a rich worm castings fertilizer. This project is a practical, hands on study to further the cause of efficient closed loop systems for oil spill clean up. Conventionally oil spill waste is incinerated. This vermiculture method took 2 years outdoors at the Presidio, and there was a control study done at Norman Terry’s Lab at UC Berkeley.

Is this cool or what? It just proves that something good can come out of something so horrible.

Give us you HAIR, PANTIHOSE, ALPACA FUR! Help with GULF clean up! May 3, 2010

The salon will be accepting donations for the Gulf Oil Spill clean up efforts. Please scroll down to the bottom for instructions.

I am a member of Excess Access, a company that creates HAIRBOOMS for oil spills and clean ups and your help is urgently needed! We have not collected hair in the past but are calling out for everyone to pass this on to your salon, stylist, alpaca, sheep or horse farm. We are saving hair at the salon also and you can bring clean pet hair in when you get a haircut and give as a donation. Also, pantyhose are needed!!

If you are a client or book a hair cut with us, your hair will automatically be donated so PLEASE spread the word!

Does any of this make sense? Okay, so several years ago a hairstylist saw what happened after the Valdez oil spill in Alaska and noticed the booms were ineffective. He, thinking like a hairstylist, of course thought – hair is porous and soaks up everything like a sponge, so why wouldn’t it work for oil? He proceeded to collect clean hair, stuff it in pantyhose (like the booms) and threw it in his pool along with several gallons of motor oil. Well, guess what happened? Yup! Soaked it right up!!!

If you have been watching the news, the booms arent holding because of the current and so this is a HUGE grass roots effort to help save the gulf coast and all that inhabit it.

 I am flying down this week to help in any way I can. My home is 2 miles from  Manasota Key and I have offered my garage for hair storage and drop off. I plan on staying a week to help with putting booms out and any clean up thats needed.

If you have any questions about donating, please call the salon at 651-628-0286 and ask for Shandta or Katie. They will give you further instructions. Below are the guidelines and PLEASE pass this on to anyone you may know who can help! Thank you all

INSTRUCTIONS FOR DONATIONS and DROP OFF SITE

Hairs To You Salon & Boutique

1603 West Co Rd C

Roseville, Mn 55113

651-628-0286  Contact: Shandta , Katie or Lorri<

<INSTRUCTIONS – HOW TO SEND HAIR / FUR / NYLONS

- set aside a designated box (salons/groomers usually reuse a box in which shampoo was delivered) – line the box with a plastic garbage bag so hair/fur can’t slip out

- ideally, donate shampoed hair (and certainly don’t include filthy hair / fur)

- any length is fine

- every type of hair is fine (straight, curly, all colors, dyed, permed, straightened…) but only HEAD hair, please! No underarm hair. No synthetic extensions, please.

- every type of fur / wool is fine

- sweep / vacuum in all clippings, JUST HAIR, but please NO OTHER GARBAGE (gum, metal clips, paper cups, wrappers…)

- remember volunteers (sometimes young students) have to stuff this hair into booms and don’t want to feel garbage or anything sharp!

- tie the top of the bag and tape the box shut

- we also accept washed, used (even with runs) nylon stockings / tights donations in a separate bag, please.

- we also accept other “natural fibers” horse hair, feathers… again, please, no other garbage or contaminants in with the fibers…

- mark the boxes DEBRIS FREE HAIR / FUR or NYLONS

If you are a ONE TIME DONOR, TEACHER or SHAVE-A-THON etc. please view this page and scroll down.

<span style=”text-decoration: underline;”><a href=”http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html”>http://www.matteroftrust.org/programs/hairmatsinfo.html</a></span>

Greenbody April 2010 Press Release May 2, 2010

“GREEN” SHAMPOO CLEANS UP THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY

Local Company Proves Chemicals Have No Place in Cosmetics

(ROSEVILLE, MN)— Lorri Weisen, a local salon owner and wife of a two-time cancer survivor, was motivated to find a healthy, toxin free shampoo to offer her clients. Distraught with the choices available, she created her own brand of hair care, dispelling the myth that you have to sacrifice lather and luxury, to achieve health and wellness.

Greenbody Greenplanet, an organically based and toxin free hair care line, has been available since January 2009 at Hairs to You Salon & Boutique in Roseville. Lorri Weisen, owner and founder of the growing line, feels it’s time to expand into the community and share it with other salons and spas that share her belief and want to offer healthier alternatives to their clients. Storm Sister Spatique of St.Paul will be the first business to carry the chemical-free line.

“I’ve been doing a sort-of delicate tap dance for the last few years,” says Weisen, whose husband’s battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma made her question the chemicals in the products we use, and how those chemicals affect our health. “Not everyone wanted to hear what I had to say or shared in the same beliefs I did, so I stepped lightly. Lately things have changed. Consumers are getting savvier, but there is still a long way to go and salons are slow to jump on board.”

With many years as a salon owner, Weisen understands the challenges in the beauty industry. “It’s self regulated and marketing is king, which means the same company that creates a product, also tests for its safety. Kind of like the fox watching the hen house. There are a lot of companies out there claiming to be clean, green and organic but the truth is─most are simply lying to us. It’s very frustrating. I searched and experimented for over a year to find products worthy of selling to my clients and came up empty handed each time, that’s why I created Greenbody Greenplanet. My hope is that I can make a positive impact in an industry that I love while helping others understand the importance of healthy beauty”.

Absent of over 100 industry synthetics and petro-chemicals, and a natural sugar-based surfactant (cleansing agent), Greenbody Greenplanet has an incredible lather you won’t find in any organically based shampoo on the market today. One of the biggest Weisen hears in regard to organic-based shampoos is inadequate lathering and the hair feeling like straw. Greenbody Greenplanet proves that, at a price you can afford, you don’t need chemicals to enjoy great lather, and give your hair the moisture and protection it needs. “If I can create safer options without sacrificing performance, why can’t others?” she says.

Greenbody Greenplanet is now available at Storm Sister Spatique in St.Paul, www.stormsister.biz.

Please visit www.greenbodygreenplanet.com for more information.

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Kid’s Safe Chemicals Act February 27, 2010

Mark your calanders for March 20th. CNN’s Sanjay Gupta reported this week that Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ,  intends to reintroduce the Kid-Safe Chemicals Act as the major vehicle for toxic chemicals policy reform “within the next month or so.”

Read the full article here.

This just in! January 16, 2010

I just received this email from The Organic Consumers Organization and wanted to pass it on to you. The OCA has a division called The Coming Clean Campaign which campaigns for organic integrity in personal care products and they are asking for a boycott! This information and lawsuit is a LONG time coming and something I whole-heartedly support. When you get done reading and are looking for new hair care- click here to get to Greenbody Greenplanet! Our products are made with certified organic, biodynamic and wild crafted ingredients and most imporantly- 100% toxin free.

 This is the original email below and has not been edited.

Toxins in Your So-Called “Organic” Health & Beauty Products

Do you use Jason Pure, Natural & Organic, Avalon Organics, Kiss My Face ObsessivelyOrganic, Nature’s Gate Organics, Stella McCartney 100% Organic, Giovanni Organic, Head Organics, Eminence Organic, Physicians Formula Organic Wear, Good Stuff Organics, Desert Essence Organics, or any “organic cosmetic” certified by Ecocert?

Hate to break it to you, but these so-called “organic” personal care products aren’t really organic and actually contain hazardous ingredients that would never be allowed in products certified to USDA organic standards.

Yesterday, the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), along with certified organic personal care brands Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, Intelligent Nutrients, and Organic Essence, filed a complaint with the USDA National Organic Program (NOP), requesting an investigation into the widespread and blatantly deceptive labeling practices of leading so-called “Organic” personal care brands, in violation of USDA NOP regulations.

The complaint, filed on behalf of the estimated 50 million regular consumers of organic products, argues that products such as liquid soaps, body washes, facial cleansers, shampoos, conditioners, moisturizing lotions, lip balms, make-up and other cosmetic products produced by 12 different corporations have been advertised, labeled and marketed as “Organic” or “Organics” when, in fact, the products are not “Organic” as understood by the average health and environmental-minded organic consumer.

Read the complaint

In addition to the complaint, Organic Consumers Association’s Coming Clean campaign has launched a boycott of cosmetics that claim to be organic, but aren’t certified to organic standards as required by law.

Read more

We’re encouraging our members to switch to USDA certified organic body care and cosmetics products, as part of a New Year’s Resolution to “be more organic” in 2010.

Switching to organic health and beauty products is easy and affordable. The simplest personal care regime involves shaving with an organic shikakai shaving gel, washing your body and hair with organic soap, following that with an organic hair rinse, and then using a baking-soda-based organic deodorant and finally moisturizing with an organic lotion or balm make of vegetable oils.

On our body care page, we’ve listed 26 different health and beauty brands where every single item under the brand name is certified to USDA organic standards.

Learn more

We need your help to get the USDA to take enforcement action based upon our legal complaint. Please write to the USDA today.

We’re also collecting the stories of consumers who have been defrauded by fake organic health and beauty care companies. Do you feel shammed? Please share your story with us.

Read more and take action

 

I encourage you to click through the links and read the full story.

To your health, Lorri