The theme for International Women’s day 2022 is Changing climates, equality today for a sustainable tomorrow. These two ideas are very close to home at Bare Beauty House.
As a strong group of women we all come from different paths of life, battling different biases and inequalities. As a sustainable salon we are one of the few emerging hair and beauty salons that’s main focus is exploring one's beauty in the most sustainable way.
When talking about a sustainable salon we are not only talking about maintaining our planet's health but also a future for women that can be sustained. This means providing eco-friendly services that allow our environment to flourish and our biodiversity to rebuild, whilst giving women results driven treatments that are toxic free and free from harsh chemicals that can ultimately lead to disease and shorter life spans.
Throughout the years women have faced many battles in achieving equality. Our right to education came late as our family roles were keeping the homes clean and serving dinner for the family.
One of our senior hairdresser's Rebecca grew up in South Korea. When talking about what it was like to grow up there she describes it as a very male dominated country and it wasn’t until she was at school that feminists became more vocal. She speaks about the men in the family being able to eat before the females and at a seperate table. When asked about her school life Rebecca says it was at the turning point of equality towards education. Her mother when she was a child had a much different experience. Her mum was not granted educational rights and instead looked after the family home and her brothers.
“What do you believe being female and feminism is?”
“Feminism is a super power women have. We are dedicated, empathetic, meticulous, always a few steps ahead and great at multitasking. As the world grows we need to be more vocal to find balance between men and women otherwise things will stop changing for the better. The foundation of the world was built for and by men and we need to change this so we must keep pushing and continue to speak up”
Rebecca - senior hair stylist
Because of our delayed start to knowledge we now strive and push harder trying to prove that we are equally as capable as men. We were deemed as unsuitable for powerful roles, and, unsuitable to choose who made our choices for us. Parliament has been held by men for decades and slowly we have seen more women speak up.
In 2021 we saw some key progressions towards equality. But we have also seen some stunts. During the dreaded Covid outbreak ‘Leah Rodriguez’ states that the global crisis has added another 36 years to the amount of time it will take to close the gender gap. This means it will now take around 13.5 years for women and men to reach impartiality. On the brighter side of things the Tokyo Olympics became the most gender equal Olympic Games. Tokyo insisted that the teams had an equal ratio of women to men. However women were still given less pay and had less news coverage.
When you think of the hair and beauty industry, it does dominate as a more female centralised career path. However there are still issues within equality and the opportunities that come with the industry. Naomi, Bare Beauty House’s founder, finds that the industry is “dominated by male artistic directors and product companies. Men have been lifted up more through the industry which is disappointing as it is a more female dominated area”.
Think Paul Mitchel, Kevin Murphy, & Tony & Guy, just to name the top three that come to mind.
This imbalance is seen across all industries especially when it comes to powerful roles. Last year we saw some positive changes towards females and parliamentary roles. Samoa and Estonia have elected their first female prime minister. Confronting the out of date belief that women are not suitable for power. In the past couple of years feminists and activists have made stands to fight for equal rights for women and those who also face bias. Creating and editing legislation and bills assists certain communities and people of the world from future bias and mistreatment. It is creating a permanent, sustainable and maintainable tomorrow.
This year we look too celebrating the struggle of feminists fighting for environmental justice around the globe. An example are women farmers in India who are trying to secure land to create lives that are empowered, self-resilient, sustainable and to create change. Last year in India the government decided to raise the legal age of marriage from 18-21 in the belief that the legislation will bring parity in the age of marriage between men and women. This decision led to a amendment of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, which was introduced into parliament.
At our salon we open our doors to all kinds of people. We make sure that every client is treated with the same respect and experience no matter their race, religion, age, gender or sexual preference. Our team of fewer than 10 are all at different stages in life. A few have teenagers, toddlers or a baby on the way. Two of us are training to either advance our skills or are just starting out. Due to us all being different ages and ethnicities we must learn to understand and support the wide range of events each of us go through. Although we are all different we have all had some of the same experiences growing up and how we are treated day to day.
To keep us and our clients feeling safe the salon has an anti discrimination policy and Our founder, Naomi, ensures all staff are not only aware of this but adhere to it by the strictest standard. This isn't hard as we all have shared values and a certain level of respect for one another , but its nice to know there is a baseline expectation for everyone who comes into the salon. Naomi also makes sure we support other Female entrepreneurs and business owners to help build a community of successful women in the area. We strive for female success in all aspects of life, whatever that looks like for each individual person. Naomi had her share of struggles and she found difficulty in finding other like minded business women. Since relocating her salon from Rose Bay to Manly, Naomi feels as though she has found her tribe who are on the same journey with her business wise and sustainability wise.
We must continue to fight for equality, biodiversity and ultimately a sustainable world for everyone and everything to thrive in!
At Bare Beauty House we strive to find the best and most innovative clean beauty treatments to bring out your inner glow and this year will be no different! As new trends arise such as bold bright colours, we will maintain our advocacy for green technology and minimised waste in beauty salons. Our partnership with Oway will continue and we look forward to using their biodynamic colours to help create your most authentic self.
At Bare Beauty House we also use Synergie Skincare who’s main focus is clean science. They reformulate their products whenever a more sustainable and sophisticated approach is available. A big reason why we love Synergie Skin is they not only help find your inner glow they do so while maintaining the glow of the world around us. Synergie Skin has the focus of clean pure Australian science delivered globally. Terri Vinson, founder and lead scientist, uses the 4 T’s when talking about our skin. Texture, Tone, Tightness and Topicals. These 4 are the main aspects of what we focus on when treating and protecting your skin.
With this in mind, we are bringing in new treatments such as vitamin infusions and light therapy throughout the year. For those of you who don’t know about Vitamin infusions, it is a mini facial in itself where we cleanse and exfoliate your skin and then using an ultra sonic micro therapy device paired with the vitamins that your skins craving, massage and infuse the vitamins into your skin. The sound therapy device helps push the ingredients deep into your skin allowing a deeper cleanse and vitamin infusion which results in longer lasting, visible results where you will leave the salon absolutely glowing!
Light Therapy, as many of you probably know, has many benefits. One of which is stimulating cellular activity, including the fibroblasts that produce collagen, a substance that gives young skin its plump look. Collagen production helps minimise fine lines and wrinkles, treat sun-damage and stretch marks, and reduce redness. Our in salon light therapy treatments will use different coloured lights to target the varied skin concerns. The light therapy treatments have no downtime, so you can be back out in the sun with no concerns, as well as being able to have a light therapy treatment every 48 hours for maximum results!
We also partner with ‘Sustainable Salons’ to provide an eco friendly approach to the removal of waste. Together we have kept 69kg of plastics out of landfill, 138kg of paper recycled and have recycled 100kg of metals. We also look at the more humanitarian side of life and have provided over 169,000 meals to those in need and we actually couldn’t do that without you. The meals are provided by donating the profit from the sales of recycled aluminium and paper used in your services!
At Bare Beauty House we focus on informing clients and being a voice in the hair and beauty industry. Naomi Browner, our founder, is due to be a speaker at this years hair festival (covid pending) and will help educate our industry about the more sustainable approach to hair and beauty.
This year we also have ‘Earth Day’ in April, ‘Clean up Australia’ in March and following that we have National Plant a Tree Day & Plastic free July. For every one of these events we will have different campaigns to help provide support and knowledge to our local community and industry.
Using our clean products, partnering with the right waste removal services and being an advocate for positive change within our industry collectively helps us to become a sustainability leader within the industry and ultimately achieve our goal of continued commitment to the environment and surrounding community.
Hi Im Naomi, Founder/colour master and sustainability leader at Bare Beauty House.
I have been in the hairdressing industry for just over 20 years now and in that time I have worked internationally as well as with some of the biggest names in the Australian Hairdressing Community. I had the privilege to join the Matrix HOT (House of talent) team where we were involved in getting 100 models coloured and styled for hair expo 2018. In addition I owned and ran a hair salon in Sydneys Eastern Suburbs for 6 years and have recently opened my second salon Bare Beauty House which is an eco luxe hair and beauty salon.
The driving force that created Bare Beauty House was the combination of two passions. A passion for the hair and beauty industry and a passion for the environment.
At Bare Beauty House sustainable luxury is achieved by offering services in a completely green environment. All the products used are biodynamic/organic and/or are made of natural ingredients that are PETA certified and involved in fair trade practices.
The Hair and Beauty Industry has a very high plastic waste issue. A lot of people are unaware of this problem, as the beauty industry is all about creating beauty but the “Bare Facts” are that 8 Million tonnes of plastic, litter our oceans every year. (nationalgeographic.com)
"My love of animals, in particular marine life, has always driven me to be a better person and make better choices. After seeing countless videos and images of animals stuck in waste, or consuming our waste, in particular plastic, and seeing the ocean suffer due to our negligence I decided enough was enough. I needed to do something different, with the vision that I could impact my local community and hopefully a part of my industry, for us all to make some positive changes.”
All salon waste is recycled through a company called Sustainable Salons and the salon uses Eco Heads shower heads which purify the water and reduce the amount of water needed by 65%.
Bare Beauty House has been created with the buildings heritage in mind, staying true to its traditional elements and blending it with the newer additions needed for the salon and eco friendly elements such as the veggie patch and worm farm in the courtyard. The clippings from this veggie patch are gifted to local restaurants.
The salon also plans to incorporate a street library on the side of the property and start a regifting service where clients and the local community can regift and re-use unwanted glass bottles as well as offer a refill program for certain hair and beauty products. Bare Beauty House plans to be involved in the local community planning clean up events as well as promoting local eco fashion/jewellery designers and alike.
Stepping foot in our salon, is like arriving at your best friends place, you’ll be welcomed into our house, with old school charm, by our passionate and highly skilled team. Addictive customer service, paired with luxurious treatments, that don’t compromise on quality or the environment, is at the heart of everything we do.
All because we believe
"Beauty shouldn't cost the earth"
Want to get to know me better? Pop into the salon for a chat I'm always around!
35 Pittwater Road, Manly