AND THE CLEAN MOVEMENT
O&M have been the pioneers of the Clean Colour Movement for over 15 years. Founded by Jose Bryce Smith in 2007, O&M is a is a value led business and Clean has always been at the heart of the brand. Passionate about sustainability and caring for the planet, the brand is dedicated to making a positive environmental impact through conscious engagement within the global hairdressing community.
“WE’VE BEEN ON A SUSTAINABLE MISSION FOR OVER A DECADE AND ARE CONTINUALLY EVALUATING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AT EVERY TOUCHPOINT. BY THE END OF 2022, ALL OF OUR PROFESSIONAL CØR.COLOR TUBES WILL BE TRANSITIONED TO 100% RECYCLED ALUMINIUM.” JOSE BRYCE SMITH
Born out of the need of hairdressers, Jose Bryce Smith, felt that hair professionals didn’t understand the long-term health effects of putting chemicals on hair and their own hands and was positive there had to be a cleaner way to do it. Jose believed that hair colour would become a health choice like, food, make up, skincare and cleaning products and that led her on the journey of creating clean hair colour and hair products that performed at a salon professional level.
The brand is incredibly proud to have recently expanded their range to include Clean Liquids, their Ammonia, PPD and Resorcinol free gel liquid colour collection. JBS says: “We wanted high shine, gloss, performance with a clean formula, the smell had to be pleasant, smell is really important to us, or lack of it, we don’t want hairdressers or their clients to breathe in fumes. We have had amazing feedback since launch on the gloss and shine, it’s a great edition to CØR.color, our permanent colour.”
The innovative founder challenged the artificial norms of hair colour and created the world’s first ammonia free hair colour in 2000, and in the 20 years since, continues to research new ways to reduce harsh chemicals in hair colour whilst still delivering exceptional results. Jose Bryce Smith says: “Health has been my no 1 value and I have always been a lover of life and I just believe that chemical overload is causing disease and haircare and hair colour is my small corner of the planet where I would like to make a difference.
As sustainability continues to evolve, so does O&M’s journey. Did you know 75% of all plastic produced has become waste? O&M did and have been working towards transitioning their whole range into PCR (post consumer recycled packaging). Some of the O&M heroes such as Know Knott and Atonic are already in PCR and the rest of the range will follow by the end of the year. In addition they are transitioning all professional colour to recycled aluminium tubes by the end of 2021. JBS says: “We are committed to the journey, we’ve done lots of small and big changes within our business. While the vast majority of O&M’s packaging is recyclable, we are now developing sustainable packaging across our range of products where possible. Additionally, while some of our products currently use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) packaging, we aim to have new product packaged in FSC board. FSC forest management certification confirms that the forest is being managed in a way that preserves biological diversity and benefits the lives of local people and workers, while ensuring it sustains economic viability.
“It’s been a long journey to get to where we are now and I can confidentially say that O&M is the clean alternative that performs as well and if not better than traditional ammonia colour, we tested it on hundreds and hundreds of heads, it took years and years to perfect the formula and there were a lot of challenges. In 2016 we launched CØR.color and that was our third generation, and the performance was so good, hairdressers were becoming more concerned with their health and that of their clients and the business exploded.”
