We’re learning about sustainable kelp forests, traceable ingredients and compostable packaging and sharing it all in this honest Moon Juice Super Hair review.
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Seeing more of your hair strands on your brush is never a good sign. While there are the physical factors like heat styling or chemicals, you may have also heard that stress can wreck havoc on our hair. Blame it on the hormones. The longer you’re stressed out, the more you’re at risk for a prolonged resting phase of hair follicle stem cells. Have you noticed that your hair is shedding more than usual? Or, have you experienced slower hair growth? Both of these could be attributed to stress. Sadly, after months of unregulated stress, I was seeing an embarassingly high number of hairs on couches, pillow cases, fuzzy sweaters and of course the bathroom floor. So, what’s a girl to do? Aside from kicking my meditation and breathing exercises into high gear, I also looked into supplements like Moon Juice’s Super Hair.
Thankfully, just as science links stress to hair loss, there’s also evidence that proper nutrition and herbs can aid in restoring hair to its lustrous glory. One of these herbs is ashwagandha, also known as Indian ginseng, and it’s a star ingredient in Moon Juice’s Super Hair supplement. Coupled with silica-rich horsetail, an herb that is known to support hair elasticity and hair growth, and saw palmetto, a palm plant linked to increased hair density, the supplement is a cocktail of nutrients designed for stronger hair. When I connected with the brand, I was delighted to try their hair supplement for a month to offer my own honest Moon Juice Super Hair review while also learning about the sustainable aspects of the brand.
As a wellness brand, Moon Juice has built a reputation that is hyper focused on clean, natural ingredients to support your health. Each is carefully grown, harvested and extracted with care to ensure that the environment that we all rely on is cared for and that each nutrient is available in a form that our bodies can absorb. That translates to kelp grown in sustainable forests and a range of organically-grown plants like tulsi (for B-complex) and ashwagandha. Staying in line with their sustainable ethics, the company does not use virgin-plastic in their packaging and instead uses glass bottles that are recyclable or refillable. Each refill is shipped in compostable pouches.
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It turns that adding a blend of carefully-sourced herbs to your diet daily can improve the health and look of your hair. Taken with a my green juices either first thing in the morning or last thing at night wasn’t a difficult step to add to my wellness routine. Within two weeks I noticed less hair shedding on the bathroom floor and a noticeable smoothness to my skin. Admittedly, I’m one to invest in my health (and hair) and finding a brand that works and has sustianable initiatives means that I’ll likely renew and try the refills next.
Right now, Moon Juice is having a great sale for you to try out their supplements yourself. And, if you’re interested in learning more about the brand’s sustainable aspects, keep reading to learn how they source their plant-based ingredients and reduce packaging waste.
Why was Moon Juice founded?
Moon Juice was born from Amanda’s experience of putting an autoimmune condition into remission after being told it wasn’t possible. She sought out experts and educated herself on diet, lifestyle, spirit and traditional wisdom. She saw radical changes in her blood and hormone panels. On paper, she started to read biologically younger than she had a decade prior. It was through simple daily practices that big changes were made.
We started as a tiny shop in Venice CA, making juices and smoothies and raw food using adaptogens and herbs. Now we’ve grown to be a global source for supplements and skin care. Everything we make is inspired by a need; either it isn’t being made, or there isn’t a version to our standard of efficacy and purity.
What steps do you take to ensure that your ingredients are grown and harvested in a way that does not disrupt its local environment?
From sowing seeds to extraction, we commit to regenerative practices and wild-harvesting sustainably. Our strict criteria help protect the natural environment and its stewards.
We monitor the native plant population, hand-harvest without disrupting the ecosystem, and never formulate with any endangered plants. Wind and spring water power the extractions for our TCM herbs.
We extract high potency vitamins from plants, not animals. Our Vitamin D in SuperPower® is extracted from organic mushrooms grown on a small farm in Pennsylvania, unlike most D’s that come from industrial-raised sheep.
By signing long-term contracts and contributing to the local communities’ infrastructure, our partners go well beyond industry standards to guarantee equitable partnerships with farmers.
From on our supplier (Ashwagandha in SuperHair®)
- Friend of the earth certified. A well organized environmental management procedure; A system of protection of the ecosystem and implementation of areas dedicated to the conservation of wild flora and fauna.
- Has reduced & continues to reduce the use of chemically synthetic substances according to the principles of organic or integrated agriculture.
- Uses suitable cultivation rotations and plant fertilization.
- Biological control, the rational use of water resources and the collection of rainwater.
- Minimization of mechanical operations on the ground and its compaction.
- The use of energy from renewable sources.
- Control of gas emissions and greenhouse effect and the implementation of systems to reduce them.
Another star ingredient in SuperHair is kelp that you source from Icelandic sustainable forests. What are sustainable forests?
From our supplier Kelp in SuperHair®:
For nearly three decades, we have been documenting sustainability of harvesting practices and protecting aquatic biodiversity. Fresh kelps are cut every three to seven years from managed and mapped beds and only a small percentage of the annual new growth is harvested. Additionally, Kelp forests help to mitigate erosion, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and offer habitat for diverse aquatic species.
From farm to store what are some of the steps that you’ve taken over the years to ensure that this value is upheld?
When sourcing our botanical ingredients we meticulously always ask about the farming practices. We maintain long-term relationships with vendors who ensure fair treatment of growers. We’ve had long relationships with vendors due to their fair treatment of their growers. There have been opportunties for us to change vendors due to cost savings—for Ashwagandha and Amla in India, Cacao in Equador, and mushrooms in China—but we’ve opted out to maintain our equitable partnerships. We’ve had opportunities to change due to cost savings and we opted out. EX Farmers in India for Ashwaghanda, Amla Berry, our Cocoa in Equador. Mushrooms in China.
What packaging materials do you use?
In 2021 we launched compostable refills for our Super Supplements, eliminating the use of hundreds of thousands of glass bottles and lids per year. The pouches are made of PLA (Polylactic Acid), which fully breaks down in your backyard compost or trash over time. This is different from conventional plastic in that it is derived from renewable plant sources (like corn or sugar cane) versus nonrenewable sources (like petroleum). Its production creates fewer carbon emissions. By investing in polylactic acid (PLA), we invest in a future filled with more composting facilities than garbage dumps.
We are currently transitioning more of our packaging into compostable materials.
What challenges did you encounter with finding sustainable packaging materials?
It’s challenging to find sustainable options at an accessible price point. Since the market for sustainable packaging is still emerging and growing, there aren’t always enough supplies to meet the wide reaching demand.
Researching sustainable materials certainly takes time and some ingenuity—it’s not always a simple swap! For example, we found a fully biodegradable resin, but it didn’t have the same heat tolerance as plastic, so we needed to find a way to incorporate it while maintaining the same level of safety and tamper evidence in our packaging.
It’s also a challenge to find lots of options at accessible pricing. Since the market for sustainable packaging is emerging and certainly growing, there are not enough supplies and demand to make it widely accessible Another challenge is that it takes time and some ingenuity, it’s not a simple swap out. Example: we found a resin (beyond green) which fully biodegrades but it doesn’t have the same heat tolerance as normal plastic so we need to try to figure out how to use this while maintaining the same safety and tamper evidence in our products.
What’s the most sustainable way that you recommend customers to dispose of the packaging?
As mentioned above, all compostable refill packs can be placed in your backyard compost or trash, and they’ll fully break down over time. Our glass packaging for all supplements and skin care is infinitely recyclable and reusable.
Collagen Protect® and Blue Beauty™ are packed in plant-based bags with powder-resistant closures. These renewable pouches are made from PLA and are 60% compostable and can be thrown in the trash after use to reduce our use of fossil fuels in both production and shipping, and are recyclable.
I’ve been testing the SuperHair® for 2 weeks and have noticed less hair fall and an unexpected smoothness to my skin. How could this supplement also contribute to a better skin tone?
This could be a few of things:
- The Silica in Horsetail, which is a building block of collagen
- The Vitamin C, an antioxidant that can help neutralize free radicals (which cause oxidative stress, the root cause of accelerated aging)
- The bioavailable multivitamin complex (since nutritional deficiencies can show up in the skin)
