Choosing hair products can cater to both your desire to live by your principles and your desire for soft, shiny, pretty hair. While many popular hair care brands either use animal testing or actually use animals in their products.  Mink oil, cow horns and hoofs, beetles, fish scales, and chicken feet, combs, and bone are all fairly common ingredients in hair products (and lotions for that matter).

If you would like to get away from those products and support a marketplace that values ethical treatment of animals, here are two great options that I tried out.

Lani:  This one is my new favorite. My sister gave me the Lani Tropical Hair Treatment for Christmas, and it was great. When I looked it up online, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the company was founded on one woman’s desire to know what was in her beauty supplies and to make conscientious decision when crafting her products. Importantly, it works to soften hair really well too. I have very unruly curly hair and noticed a big difference after using it.

Hask is another product I recently stumbled on to that takes pride in not testing on animals.  Their homepage features a kitten with a halo of flowers on it. In one FAQ about animal testing, Hask’s response was

We definitely DO NOT test on animals! That’s terrible… I’m hurt that you even think we do – and my puppy Harley is offended too! We make sure our suppliers and vendors supply safety and regulatory information on our ingredients so we don’t run into any issues. We love our furry friends and would never do anything to harm them! (P.S. We’re glad you’re concerned about this too)

Hask is also made and distributed in the US so it is easily available and sold at Target, Rite Aid, Ulta, and a number of other retailers.  I’ve used the Argan Oil Healing Shine for protection against flat-iron damage, and it works well.

There are many other choices that I haven’t tried which are made with ethics as a priority. Some of them found in stores include JASON, Avalon, and Aveda. Some with good reviews found on Etsy are Get Naked, Pacific Touch Beauty, and Luvmilk. Those have the appeal of individual service (in case of allergy and scent) and of supporting the little guy (even though they’re all female owned and operated).

Today was tough for me listening to donald talking about how the men he’s appointed are successful because they’re genius. That crossed with his well-documented racehorse theory, says a lot about how big businesses and old money entice his respect and preference.  Lani is growing, and those Etsy companies are holding their own. It is great to be able support the companies that support the people and ethics we believe in.  If enough of us shift our purchasing priorities, the market will reflect those values. I’d love to have some of these ethical self-made women viewed as geniuses too.