If you are lucky enough to have lived in Hawaii or even to have enjoyed a holiday there, no doubt you will have wonderful memories from these tropical islands full of intoxicating scents, a landscape of natural beauty surrounded by a magical underwater world. Maybe you use a hair care brand perfumed with tropical scents that remind you of these islands!
To be honest, I have never visited, but fortunately there is an amazing, cruelty-free brand, Paul Mitchell, which gives a real sense of Hawaii. An American brand, Paul Mitchell focuses mainly on professional hair care, supplied exclusively to hairdressing salons (also available online). More importantly, it cares about animals and people!
The history of the Paul Mitchell brand is very interesting. In 1980, two friends, Paul Mitchell and John Paul DeJoria, founded John Paul Mitchell Systems in Hawaii for just $700. Co-founder Paul Mitchell was born in Scotland and was making a living in the States as a professional hairdresser. His partner John Paul DeJoria, an American of Italian-Greek descent, worked in a number of occupations, including washing dishes in a restaurant. He still remembers how his teacher taunted him that he wouldn’t do anything with his life!
From the beginnings of their company and their new line of hair care, which they simply called Paul Mitchell, both friends entirely rejected animal testing. They also tried to make their product ingredients environmentally-friendly.
As early as 1989, John Paul Mitchell Systems joined PETA in renouncing animal experimentation – and was the first hair care producer to do so. Sadly, Paul Mitchell died of cancer that year, after which his son Angus Mitchell became the co-owner of the company. Co-founder John Paul DeJoria retained the company’s fundamental vision, saying: “We at Paul Mitchell believe that all companies should contribute to animal protection and to local as well as global support actions.”
John Paul DeJoria acts on these beliefs. For example, since 2008 the company has been cooperating with the Food4Africa charity project, which provides food for 10,000 children every day. He is also a partner in the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the non-profit organisation Reforest’Action, which is strongly committed to afforestation of the planet, and with Berea College on the project Grow Appalachia, which supports disadvantaged communities.
Any takeover bids on John Paul Mitchell Systems have always been rejected, for the sake of maintaining the company’s original direction. John Paul DeJoria very cleverly invested his company’s assets in an endowment fund and legally ensured that the company would not change owners for 350 years.
What is more remarkable to the Paul Mitchell brand is the active support it gives to the Mineseeker Foundation, which promotes the removal of landmines, and which over the years has been under the patronage of Nelson Mandela, former Queen Noor of Jordan, and Brad Pitt. There are more than 100 million mines in the world, and one person dies every 19 minutes from encountering one.
In 2012, Paul Mitchell took a step back from the Chinese market, shortly after animal testing became the only legal criterion for the entry of cosmetic products into China. In 2013, John Paul DeJoria (for Paul Mitchell) actively participated in Cruelty Free International’s London and Madrid conferences to end animal testing internationally. As such, Paul Mitchell is almost the only professional hair care brand to have rejected Chinese requirements and it has been cruelty free certified (HCS) for a long time.
Its popularity with Hollywood celebrities is further proof of the brand’s reputation. Products include hair care shampoos, styling products, as well as colouring care. The hair care lines are suitable for all hair types, coloured or natural. The moisture line is intended for dried har, the smoothing line for straightened hair and the curls line for wavy hair. The original line products smell beautiful with a dazzling scent of Hawaiian awapuhi (the Hawaiian name for the ginger plant). There is also a line for children and in 2012, Paul Mitchell launched products for men, called ‘MITCH’. There are even products for pets!
