By Gail Markland, hair stylist extraordinaire and enthusiastic scuba diver

Last year I was looking around the salon and noticing that all the products were in either plastic or metal containers. I did some asking around at the wholesalers where I buy products and discovered there are no alternatives to the plastic packaging of salon products.

After a recent dive trip a fellow mermaid introduced me to shampoo bars. These shampoo bars produce a rich lather and are gentle on the hair and bonus…there’s no plastic packaging.

The idea of helping reduce plastic and encouraging others to do the same with no loss of value to the user is exciting to me.

The shampoo bars come in five varieties for different hair types:

• The yellow bars are for greasy or limp hair and have a wonderful lemon scent.

• The blue bars are for sports; the lavender does a nice job of neutralizing the smell of chlorine.

• The green bars are for the entire family. This is a great all-around shampoo.

• The white bars are for those who use heated tools on their hair. This is the mildest of the shampoo bars with the least fragrance.

• The red bars are for color treated hair and contain the natural ingredient henna.

Shampoo bars contain no plastic and there is zero waste, which means nothing goes in the landfill or worse still the ocean.

Shampoo bars are easy to travel with because they are solid - just pop one into your carry-on. No more having to worry about 3 oz limits and one less liquid to stuff in a quart sized plastic bag.

These bars are environmentally friendly which means we can start to repair the damage done to marine life.

This one personal hygiene product with zero waste and perhaps the one most of us use daily. By changing to shampoo bars we start the journey of replacing other products and causing a ripple effect toward a healthier world.