Greenwashing, it occurs in Natural hair product promoting

(origin)

The Natural hair movement has pushed the uses of herbs, oils, and organic properties to a whole new level.  Herbal remedies for illnesses or even just for better living has increased over the years but with so many Black women jumping on the bandwagon of using natural hair products; more and more companies are trying to cash in on the craze.  The problem with this is that not every product that touts those all to common words may be actually telling the truth. 

The problem is that many of these companies and their claims are not regulated so no one is preventing them from slapping whatever they want on their products to get consumers to buy them.  This is greenwashing.

Greenwashing

When a company, government or other group promotes green-based environmental initiatives or images but actually operates in a way that is damaging to the environment or in an opposite manner to the goal of the announced initiatives. This can also include misleading customers about the environmental benefits of a product through misleading advertising and unsubstantiated claims.  Investopedia

Greenwashing doesn’t JUST happen with companies and our environment.  It happens with consumers and the products they use on their bodies, hair, and ingest.  It’s a real concern and since there is a real money to be made by appearing green, many companies are cashing in on the deceptive advertising. The good thing is that there are tons of sites out there helping consumers decipher what is real and what is fake or not so real.  Here’s the Daily Green showing us 10 Marketing terms that you should be skeptical of:

Be Skeptical of These 10 Marketing Terms

Yes, there are resources but we as consumers can do a lot on our own by just READING the back of the label as well as looking for official seals like the USDA Organic Seal:

This seal means 95% of the ingredients in the product are organic.  If a product states, “Made with certified organic ingredients” it means 70 to 95% of the ingredients are organic.  Here’s an Organic Labeling and Marketing Fact Sheet from the USDA to help consumers understand what goes into the labeling of organic products.  

This is not meant to scare anyone.  This post is meant to educate and make us think a little before we pick up that product claiming to be natural or organic.  Many of us assume our government checks everything but that just isn’t so. We must also understand what their checking entails on the products they do regulate.  I’ll leave some links to some websites worth reading regarding Greenwashing as well as beauty product safety.  

Just keeping us in the know Naturals,

Sabrina

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/NOPConsumers

http://www.thedailygreen.com/

http://www.treehugger.com/style/5-greenwashed-myths-of-the-beauty-industry-and-how-not-to-fall-for-them.html