What happens when you throw away a wig? - written by Sarah (founder)
In this article I'm going to quickly share with you, what happens when you throw away a wig, why you should stop throwing away your wigs, and the 3 easy methods you should do instead!
Why shouldn’t you throw away a wig? Well, the main reason is for the affects it has on the environment. When you throw it away in the garbage, it ends up in the landfill of the oceans. Human hair takes 7 to 10 years to decompose and synthetic hair takes over hundreds of years.
The hair and wig business is a billion-dollar business. Millions of people wear wigs and hair extensions for various reasons. So that means hundred of thousands of pounds of hair that will just sit there in landfills or our oceans forever. (Show videos of landfills and trash in the ocean).
I'm sure you knew that, but if you want to know more about the effects of not recycling hair can on our environment, I'll leave some helpful articles down below.
I'm now gonna share 3 ways you can recycle your human or synthetic wigs - I've saved the best one for last too!
Option One
One option would be to - not give up on it! Haha, I believe all wigs, human or synthetic can be repaired and made new again with a little TLC. I've made so many videos on reviving wigs, so I'll leave a playlist down below!
Option Two
Second option would be to donate it or sell it, preferably if its human! Many people with alopecia, hair loss due to cancers and other hair loss illnesses are always looking for quality hair, but dont have the funds to purchase it. If you have a that is human, you dont wear at all and it's still in good condition, consider donating to your local wig bank!
Also, you be surprised by how many people would be willing to purchase a second hand human wig if it's still in good condition. Consider using marketplaces like Facebook, craigslist, Poshmark, Kijiji if you're in Canada or wigtrader.com
Option Three
3rd option would be to recycle it with a laboratory
I know options for recycling wigs is just so hard to come by, or very expensive. Sometimes it can be just plain laziness, like how I can be sometimes haha.
We want to make it easier for you, for us wig wearers. We have partnered up with TerraCycle, a US & Canada based recycling laboratory that will assist us with recycling our wigs.
They recycle the products by either turning them into other items, wig banks or repurpose human hair as fertilizer for farming purposes.
Terracycle US website - Terracycle Canada Website
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All you have to do is send us an email using this form link below and we will send you a shipping label!
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It's free to recycle the wigs for all Sol Beauty Wigs customers in the U.S & Canada.
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So we send you the label for free and you just go to your nearby post office, they print the label or you can print it yourself. And you're done!
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If you are looking for a way to recycle a wig that's not from Sol Beauty wigs, I will leave some links for free recycling services in the us. Canada and UK.
This cause has been on my mind since 2018 and I'm so happy that now we can help out the environment in these small ways. If you have any questions leave below in the comments section! But apart from that, please don't throw your wig away, recycle it in any way you can.
Future Goals
We have many goals here at Sol Beauty wigs regarding becoming more sustainable, and cost effective. W have many ideas including creating 3D printed human hair. Its synthetically made human hair but will be more affordable, ethical and even more long lasting. We love working with charities and organizations dedicated to hair loss. Read on our About page to learn more about our efforts with "Locs of Love".
Goals
1.Collect Human hair, disinfect, wash, condition, style and donate to charities
2. Create a more sustainable alternative to synthetic hair in the future made with 3D print hair (future, ongoing project)