August 2008 | On Our Radar

Salon Selectives

Ick-free manis, poison-less pedis and hair care that won’t hurt you

By Nicole Peyraud

For thousands of years, women have plucked, dyed, cut and polished to squeeze into cultural parameters of beauty. Cleopatra was famous for using minerals to darken her eyelids, ochre to tint her lips and red henna to dye her hair, stain her nails and color the soles of her feet. Ancient Grecian and Roman women used hair dye made from lead oxide and slaked lime to achieve the coveted midnight-black locks.

As time has progressed, so too have the complexities of treatments we’re willing to undergo in the name of vanity — as has the number of toxins consumers are exposing themselves to, whether willingly or unwittingly.

Unfortunately, many of our favorite salons are hotbeds of impossible-to-pronounce ingredients. Chemicals and metals such as p-phenylendiamine, ammonia, peroxide, diaminobenzene, aniline and mercury are commonly used in typical hair dyes, while many nail care products contain carcinogenic chemicals like toluene and formaldehyde.

Happily, organic and eco-friendly alternatives are cropping up right here in our fine city. And with awareness campaigns rising among salon workers — many of them non English-speaking recent immigrants (literally) sick of being exposed daily to harsh chemicals — enlightened salon owners are re-evaluating outdated standards. The host of new back-to-basics products and services is creating a model of beauty that looks and feels a little like it might have back in pretty Cleo’s day — 100 percent au natural.