Redesigning hair care for a sustainable future
Lynn Tan is making shampoo greener by getting rid of the water and plastic in each bottle
IN EARLY 2021, beauty industry veteran Lynn Tan was inspired to revolutionise the hair care industry after she learnt about the harm that plastic was doing to the environment. As a mother of 3, Ms Tan was motivated by concern for the future her children to create a hair care brand that was sustainable and eco-friendly.
The result of her effort was THE POWDER SHAMPOO™ - a truly sustainable, plastic-free, vegan powder shampoo that foams and lathers easily when it comes in contact with water.
"While many of us want to be eco-friendly, it is difficult because we have very limited sustainable options. You can shampoo less, use products that use recycled plastic packaging or use shampoo bars," says Ms Tan, who is the Founder and CEO of THE POWDER SHAMPOO™.
While shampoo bars are a potentially good option, Ms Tan says that using such a product was not an enjoyable experience. Instead, she desired a sustainable product that was easy to use, lathered nicely and smelled amazing. As such, she decided to create her own product from scratch; and so the Powder Shampoo was born.
A groundbreaking innovation
THE POWDER SHAMPOO™ is different from dry shampoos on the market, which are applied to the scalp to absorb excess oil. Ms Tan's creation is designed to be used directly on wet hair for a full lathering shampoo experience. The ground breaking product was launched in April 2022 with four variants. All products are available on the brand's online store.
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As 80 per cent of regular shampoo is made of water, THE POWDER SHAMPOO™ helps to save this valuable resource; especially since water does not actually enhance a shampoo's effectiveness. Indeed, the liquid dilutes the product so that a larger quantity is required for each wash.
Furthermore, the weight that the water adds to shampoos means that more resources are needed to transport them. Finally, many brands use damaging single-use plastic packaging to hold liquid shampoos.
"If we can stop relying on single-use plastic for the beauty industry, our carbon footprint can be drastically reduced. Plastic pollution is an ongoing disaster, especially with single-use plastic making up 50% of the plastic plague. As a business leader, I can harness my experience and know-how to create a ripple effect that will start the winds of change and break out of the mould we are so accustomed to," says Ms Tan.
"The antiquated way of producing shampoo that existed in the 1950s has hardly changed. THE POWDER SHAMPOO™ is revolutionary way to care for our hair. It's clean for our environment, made with botanical goodness, and is pleasurable to use while providing the efficacy one would expect from a high quality product. This approach is in line with one of our core values of 'PlantPower'."
THE POWDER SHAMPOO™ incorporates essential oils such as bergamot, grapefruit, tea tree and mint into their products. These are natural preservatives that give the shampoos a shelf life of two years after opening. The products are also vegan and animal cruelty-free.
Overcoming challenges
Breakthrough innovations, however, never come easy. Firstly, the concept of a foaming powder shampoo is so new that the take-up rate has so far been slow. The company's strategy is to initially focus on engaging with eco-conscious customers who are seeking to be sustainable. "We realise that the green consumers do not need much convincing, and they understand our concept completely. So we will focus on this core group as a start," explains Ms Tan.
The company also faced constraints in their packaging options, as there was a huge disparity between the cost of non-plastic and plastic packaging. Ms Tan eventually chose aluminium, in spite of its high cost, because the material is durable, light and can be infinitely recycled, unlike plastic, which can only be recycled once. Most importantly she wanted to adhere to the company's core value of being plastic-free.
To reduce the production of aluminium bottles, THE POWDER SHAMPOO™ also offers 100g refill packs of the shampoo, which are packaged in 100 per cent paper, for repeat customers. Ms Tan also decided to reduce costs by streamlining their distribution process; the company sells either direct to the end-consumer or with just one intermediary. Furthermore, she made the important decision of not passing on any of the higher packaging costs to her customers.
While the product offers good value for consumers - one 100g bottle can be used for 100 washes, as opposed to just 20 washes for a 200ml liquid shampoo bottle - it is less profitable than traditional shampoos due to the long buying cycle.
Says Ms Tan: "This is a conscious decision made as part of the company's core values to put our Planet First. First, we create no harm and simultaneously we will set aside revenue to give back to the planet. So we plant a tree with every product we sell."
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