I once heard from a friend that your hair can get used to shampoo and so it’s a good idea to mix them about and use a different one each time you wash your hair. So ever since she shared her opinion, I have had two or three bottles on the go at once. Of course I know it’s a load of rubbish! I mean it’s not as if your skin gets used to soap or moisturiser and is no longer clean or soft to touch any more. But, you know, I like having that little choice to make in the morning, hmm am I a Brilliant Brunette today or do I want the aroma of some or other essential oil to waft about me at work as I toss my head in meetings or is it simply that I need to treat that flaky scalp? So every few months off I go to the shops, check out what they’ve got and add it to my little collection by the shower.
But it’s not quite that simple, not just a choice of a shampoo that smells nice, that suits your hair, that is within your budget. There is something else that we need to think about when buying shampoo, or clothes, or anything in fact!
There is an Oscar Wilde ‘fairy’ tale: ‘The Young King’ who on the night of his coronation has three dreams which reveal to him the truth behind the robe, sceptre and crown that he is due to wear with such pomp and circumstance the following day: the cruelty, death and sadness that went into their creation. Upon awaking he cannot bring himself to wear them. “Shall joy wear what grief has fashioned?” he says. It is a beautiful story that I recommend you read.
So how does this relate to shampoo?
There is a phrase that comes to my mind every time I buy something nowadays. ‘What is the True Cost?’ It repeats in my head like a mantra: True Cost, True Cost, True Cost. Because it’s not just about what you can and cannot afford to buy with the money you’ve got. It’s about what you can and cannot afford to buy with the world you’ve got.
Okay, so we know that in this country and other Western countries we have laws about fair wages and treatment of people, the way goods are created and what goes into them and so on, so that we can be fairly sure that what is manufactured here has been created according to certain standards – as long as those standards are reflected in law and adhered to by the companies involved. But I think that we have reached a stage where we take it for granted that therefore everything in the garden is lovely.
I would suggest that there are areas where we can make a difference:
Look at shampoo and cosmetics in general. What a huge industry! And I don’t criticise the use of cosmetics or the creation of them. Ever since there have been people, there has been a desire to improve on what nature has given us. We have used concoctions to make us more attractive, give us softer skin, shinier hair, rosier cheeks, whether that’s bathing in asses’ milk or creating a beauty cream in a factory by scientific methods. That’s great and one of the many ways in which people can use their creativity to make other people feel better. But what is the True Cost? I can think of a number of questions I’d like answers to before buying my skin cream: Does it work? Is it within my budget? – everybody asks those ones.
But how about: How much energy is used in creating it? How much pollution is incurred by its creation? Where is it created? Where do the ingredients come from? How are the employees treated? How does that company conduct its business? And it’s not necessarily true that so-called ‘natural’ products are any better for the environment, or pollute any less than more ‘chemical’ products (that are usually extracted from plants anyway). How can you be sure that you want to buy that product until you know the answers to these questions and know what type of treatment of the world and other people you are supporting with your couple of quid.
I would suggest that this sort of information should be freely available if we want to make an informed choice.
What else?
Well here’s one: imported goods are not subject to the same laws as goods created in the UK. Hence a lot of cheap stuff in the shops. We think: ‘Brilliant! I can buy a t-shirt for 2 quid.’ But what is the True Cost? Bad publicity about use of child labour and the like has reduced the extremes of exploitation that UK consumers will accept. But there are subtler issues here. Aren’t these other countries’ workers entitled to the same fair wage that we get in this country? Could you in all honesty travel and talk to the people who made your tshirt for 2 quid, see their lives, working conditions, how far their wages go and still happily wear it?
Other countries may get away with producing goods using ingredients or methods that are no longer allowed in this country, for varying reasons. These methods or ingredients may make the products cheaper than UK goods. So by buying these cheap toys, or clothes or whatever, we again are saying that we are happy to support this, when we have outlawed those methods in our own country. I’m not trying to say that we should buy only british made goods or that all foreign produced goods are somehow dangerous or exploitative, but we either need more freedom of information or stricter import laws to support how we, as consumers, want other people and the environment to be treated. We cannot assume that this is already being done for us, and abdicate responsibility by saying it’s the shop’s fault or the manufacturer’s fault or the government’s fault.
We have the power to question the retailers and the manufacturers and the government. All it takes nowadays is an email to your MP, to a retailer’s or manufacturer’s head office. We have the power to only spend our precious money where we’re sure that we are supporting companies who trade the way we want them to trade. And there are already retailers who pride themselves on their approach to doing business fairly. We will only get more retailers like this if we tell them how to change and refuse to spend money there until they do.
Yes we want cheap goods, yes we want products that work. But let this mantra sing in your head, as you walk through the shops and pick out your purchases: What is the True Cost, the True Cost, the True Cost.
