Roger OngReused packaging, revived farmland and regenerative ingredients are some of this year’s sustainable Japanese haircare product releases. Here are four from SHIRO, OSAJI and uka, and what makes each one sustainable.
SHIRO Zero Sabon Satin Oil
SHIRO’s Zero Sabon Satin Oil is a lightweight hair and body mist oil, and the first satin oil the brand has made. It is one of four items in the Zero Collection’s first hair care range, a line that gives leftover warehouse stock a second life. The bottle is an eau de parfum bottle that had been sitting in storage. Because materials were limited, the soap-based Zero Sabon scent was reworked with a different combination of fragrance notes. Calendula extract adds moisture, and the oil can be sprayed on hair, skin or both.
SHIRO Zero Sabon Satin OilSHIRO Zero White Lily Hair Balm
SHIRO’s Zero White Lily Hair Balm is a shea butter balm that tames frizz and adds shine to dry or damaged hair. It can style hair into a wet look, textured strands or an updo, and any balm left on the hands can go on dry fingertips or elbows. The sustainable part is the packaging. The containers were made for a mugwort face cream the brand discontinued and had been sitting in the warehouse, so no new containers had to be produced. The scent is built on white lily, which SHIRO describes as the richest floral among its fragrances.
SHIRO Zero White Lily Hair BalmOSAJI culture Sunflower Hair Oil
OSAJI culture Sunflower Hair Oil has just two ingredients, both from Minakami in Gunma Prefecture: oil pressed from sunflower seeds and essential oil distilled from native kuromoji, a fragrant woodland shrub. The sunflowers grow on abandoned farmland that OSAJI has been restoring since 2018, after Minakami town approached the brand about land left idle by population decline and ageing. OSAJI distils the kuromoji itself. It is the brand’s first product from its raw-material self-sufficiency project, which responds to Japan’s heavy reliance on imported cosmetic ingredients. Only 1,000 numbered bottles were made.
OSAJI culture Sunflower Hair Oiluka IZU Kuromoji Re Serum for Scalp
uka’s IZU Kuromoji Re Serum for Scalp comes from the brand’s Regenerative Good series, which chooses ingredients with a view to restoring hair, scalp and nature. The serum targets so-called ghost blood vessels, scalp capillaries where circulation has stalled, using the warming ingredient vanillyl butyl ether alongside sodium dextran sulfate. The name points to Izu, the Shizuoka peninsula where the kuromoji water is sourced, and uka’s chief executive has described kuromoji as a plant that can contribute to environmental conservation. The idea is that caring for the scalp and caring for the land can start from the same plant.
uka IZU Kuromoji Re Serum for Scalp
