Care in practice
Caring about people and caring about the world around us aren’t separate things. They shape the products we choose, what happens to our salon waste and how we make Other People feel comfortable for more people.
A Sustainable Salon
Hair salons create some fairly unusual waste. Hair clippings, colour tubes, foils and leftover chemicals can’t simply be placed in the household recycling bin.
Other People is part of the Sustainable Salons program, which collects and separates salon materials so they can be recycled, repurposed or disposed of responsibly rather than being sent straight to landfill.
Through the program:
Hair clippings are collected for useful new purposes, including the creation of hair booms that can help absorb oil spills.
Aluminium foils, colour tubes and other metals are recycled.
Plastics and paper are separated and processed.
Excess colour and chemicals are collected for specialist recycling.
Suitable ponytails can be donated to help create medical wigs.
Proceeds from recyclable materials help provide meals through OzHarvest.
The wider program creates meaningful employment for people with disability.
It takes a little more sorting behind the scenes, but that is exactly the point. Once we know there is a better place for something to go, putting it all in one bin no longer makes much sense.
Something for Other People
SPLaSh - the Southern Peninsula Laundry and Shower Program - provides free showers, laundry facilities, toiletries, food and practical support to people sleeping rough or experiencing other forms of homelessness on the Mornington Peninsula.
You’ll find a SPLaSh collection bin in the salon, along with a selection of useful haircare products. If you would like to contribute, you can purchase a product and add it directly to the bin. We then deliver the collection to Southern Peninsula Community Support for distribution through the program.
It’s a small and practical thing: helping another person wash and care for their hair, feel clean and feel a little more like themselves.
There is never any pressure to contribute. The bin is simply there for anyone who would like to.
Products chosen with care
What we use on your hair matters.
Our product collection is carefully chosen with the condition of your hair, the health of your scalp and its wider impact in mind. This includes Pure Hair Care, whose sulphate- and paraben-free formulas use ingredients such as shea butter, argan oil and selected treatment oils.
We also believe that good product advice should reduce waste. That means recommending what genuinely suits your hair, routine and budget - not sending you home with five things you never needed.
The salon to yourself
A hair appointment can involve a lot: music, conversation, mirrors, bright light, hairdryers, unfamiliar smells and people moving around you.
For neurodivergent people and anyone with a sensitive or easily overwhelmed nervous system, that can turn an ordinary appointment into something exhausting.
Emma offers private, low-sensory appointments during which Other People is closed to other clients. It means you can have the salon to yourself, with fewer voices, less movement and a calmer environment.
Before your appointment, you can let Emma know what would make the experience easier. That might include:
Little or no conversation
Music turned down or off
Adjusted lighting where possible
An explanation before each stage begins
Advance warning before touch, water or noisy equipment
Pauses whenever you need them
Bringing a support person
Simply having more quiet and less going on around you
You don’t need a diagnosis and you don’t need to justify what you need. Just tell us what would help.
A quieter kind of appointment
Private low-sensory appointments need to be arranged directly so Emma can reserve the whole salon for you.