About Scisters Salon
Scisters Salon is San Diego’s first Zero Waste Salon, offering beauty products in bulk and various other supplies for living a zero waste, intentional lifestyle. An immense amount of thought is given to how the salon is operated, the services offered, and the options of products that are used and retailed. The team takes pride in finding and customizing products with easily recognized ingredients, eliminating toxins, and integrating wellness in your beauty routine.
The salon was founded by Melissa Parker and Easton Bajsec in 2010. The young women wanted to offer an approachable and welcoming experience to both guests of the business and employees.
The La Mesa Salon is fueled by it’s core values-
Exemplary Service- Providing a highly trained experience and your full attention.
Connection- Creating moments and trust through our words and work
Continuous Improvement- Striving to always be developing into greatness.
Socially Responsible- Behaving and conducting business ethically and with sensitivity
toward social, cultural, economic and environmental issues.
Wealth Mindset- Believing that you are of high value, capable of building financial, social, physical, mental and time wealth and behaving in a way that reflects that.
Come be part of the vision.
ZERO WASTE // TOXIN FREE // BEAUTY IN BULK // REFILLABLE AND PACKAGE FREE GOODS
As best friends who are hairdressing professionals, we had the desire to make a difference in the beauty industry towards conscious consumption and found ourselves progressing as individuals, becoming increasingly concerned about industry’s impact on the environment. The beauty industry is full of caring, creative and service minded individuals. We need those people to have a desire to make a difference and to stop buying into big businesses selling them greenwashed products. We will be the first to admit that we were part of that herd, truly thinking we were doing what was best. The question is, how do we continue to push further?
Our intention is to take on the responsibility of waste as a business and make it easy on you!
WHAT IS A ZERO WASTE SALON
Zero Waste is the common and most recognized name, but realistically low waste is the more appropriate term. Essentially you are trying to create as close to zero waste going to landfill as possible.
Here at Scisters, we are mindful of each purchase to limit our disposal and have reduced our waste 99%. We have partnered with Green Circle to divert the beauty waste that we produce. Your hair clippings can help clean up oil spills, foil and color tubes are melted down to make new products, and left over color is turned into clean energy.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Our apothecary helps others in reducing their waste by offering bulk refills, and goods that are sustainably packaged, to prevent contributing them to the landfills. We aspire to meet people where they are at on their low-waste journey without any judgement. We hope to create a space where you feel comfortable and welcome while reducing waste. Remember, even minor changes can have a major impact.
We continue to improve on our journey everyday as well. When we learn and find a better way, we shift. Our aspiration is to care for the planet to our best ability while making a positive impact on our community and you.
We're in this together... Let's make a difference.
NEW ON YOUR JOURNEY?
“Take it easy and give yourself some grace. Choose to nix one single use or plastic option from your life at a time. Once you get that down, try eliminating something else. We didn’t become this advanced in our eco consciousness or clean beauty overnight. It takes time to adjust to a new way of life. The most positive thing to note is that once something becomes a habit and part of your lifestyle, it becomes normal to you and is no longer difficult.”
-Easton Bajsec
INFINITELY RECYCLABLE PACKAGING
“In the zero waste world, we choose glass and aluminum over plastic because they are infinitely recyclable, whereas plastic has a lifespan and will eventually end up in landfill, usually prematurely.”
If you visit our Apothecary, we will fill any bottle a guest brings in but if they need a bottle, we offer two sizes in both glass and aluminum. In the zero waste world, we choose glass and aluminum over plastic because they are infinitely recyclable, whereas plastic has a lifespan and will eventually end up in landfill, usually prematurely. We sell all of our bulk products by ounce, so you can buy as much or as little as you’d like.
All of our shampoos and styling aids are purchased in bulk, mostly in 5 gallon buckets. We are able to divert 80 plastic bottles for every 5 gallon bucket of Element product!
Once our 5 gallon buckets have been scraped clean of all their goodness, we donate them to I Love A Clean SD. They are a local organisation that empowers people to improve the health and beauty of our local environment through community programs, education and regional recycling resources. They use them to facilitate community clean-ups here in San Diego.
WHY REDUCE SINGLE-USE PLASTICS
Did you know that all the plastic that has ever been made is still somewhere here on Earth? That’s because it is designed to last forever, it takes 450 years to break down. Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole last century. While we definitely advocate for recycling, it comes fourth in the zero waste circular economy. Plastic can only be recycled once or twice because it downgrades each time through the process, and only 25% is recycled in the US.
THERE IS A BETTER WAY
With simple changes to our daily routines, we can have a lasting impact on this rapidly growing problem. Our decision to use glass and aluminum stemmed from many reasons. Both are successfully recycled all over the world and are able to be completely recycled without any loss in quality, at a fraction of the initial production costs and energy requirements. They are also easily cleaned and sterilized, so that you can reuse our bottles again and again.
WHAT IS THE TRANSITION LIKE
“It was pretty easy to find a zero waste product company, or a toxin free company, but we had difficulty finding a zero waste, toxin free company that would also curate professional beauty results. And can I say that the testing process was rough! (Laughs) We learned then that we really wanted the transition to sustainable beauty to be an easy one for you.”
-Melissa Parker
“I was so used to using synthetics on my own hair and that of my guests, that I had no idea what natural hair felt like anymore. When we first shifted, I thought the hair seemed to feel more dry and tangled because I was so used to the slip of synthetic stylers, now I don’t notice that anymore. I understand the way natural hair feels when clean and damp, I had no clue I was missing that as a professional. I continue to be surprised by the comments from guests about the improved health of their hair once they have used our products for a while, and my own hair is longer and healthier than ever. “
-Easton Bajsec