Alchemika Salon

THE SHOP

Behind Alchemika Salon’s cheery periwinkle door is a bright, clean, full-service hair salon in Mount Vernon that puts equal focus on its customers and the environment. Eco-conscious, or green, salons like Alchemika sell eco-friendly products and offer services with an eye toward environmental health. For instance, Alchemika takes responsibility for early steps in recycling their salon waste. It’s part of the Green Circle Salon organization. Owner Terry Somers-Barnes and stylist Debi Mast received training to gain the salon’s green certification, which includes using things like hair clippings and the salon’s waste products to make the world a healthier place. One example: ocean booms made of recycled hair clippings that contain and soak up oil and chemical spills. Once the booms absorb all the hazardous material, they are brought ashore where the chemicals are extracted and disposed of properly.

THE ATMOSPHERE

At salons like Alchemika, Green Circle sends compostable packaging for 98 percent of the salon’s waste and picks up the full containers every few weeks. Used foil and empty coloring tubes are melted down (the residual color and bleach are incinerated in a closed environment so the vapors don’t enter the atmosphere), old styling tools are recycled, and hair clippings get recycled into those ocean booms or sent to researchers who turn them into renewable energy. Salon staffers simply place waste in the proper receptacle and send Green Circle a monthly report. They charge a $1 eco fee per client, a small price to pay for keeping the earth healthy.

KEY PEOPLE

Salon owner and stylist Somer-Barnes, who also has training in permanent cosmetics, has more than 15 years in the hair and beauty industry, including work in management, sales, and business consulting. She also worked in the fashion industry for 12 years. Salon stylist Mast has more than three decades of experience as a stylist, salon owner and in customer service. Somers-Barnes stands behind Alchemika and other Green Circle Salons in the North Sound and elsewhere. “It’s so important for us to be a part of the solution as opposed to contributing to the problem.”

WHAT YOU’LL FIND

Alchemika proudly uses and sells Italian-based Davines styling products. Davines is eco-friendly and uses sustainable measures everywhere, from the product ingredients to the food-grade plastic packaging which breaks down faster than other plastics or can be reused for things like succulent planters. Davines’ Liquid Spell ($45) is a modifying and reinforcing hair treatment; and its Dry Texturizer spray ($27) is a popular finishing product. Alchemika recently started offering online shopping via its website and Facebook page. Besides products, Alchemika offers salon services including haircuts, coloring, styling and treatments, facial waxing and long-lasting cosmetics like brow microblading, eyeliner, lipliner and full-lip color.

823 Cleveland Ave., Mount Vernon
360.428.6272 | alchemikasalon.com

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