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Go ask Leslee: Bethel Park graduate tells how to have a hair salon go ‘green’

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 4 min read
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For her first job as a hair stylist after graduating from cosmetology school, Leslee Richie brought a little something extra.

“I had always tried to promote recycling in the salon,” she recalled, “and it led to me going through the garbage and picking out Starbucks cups and anything that could be recycled.”

Leslee Richie has handy bins for sorting at White Rabbit Salon.

This year, the 2010 Bethel Park High School graduate is celebrating the three-year anniversary of her own business, White Rabbit Salon in Brookline, where recycling remains at the forefront.

Richie works with the nonprofit Green Circle network of sustainable salons to help counteract the beauty industry’s sending 877 pounds of waste to landfills.

That’s every single minute.

At White Rabbit, discarded products such as foils, excess hair color, aerosol cans and color tubes – along with the hair, itself – are separated by component for shipment to the Green Circle facility in Chicago. From there, as much as possible is repurposed.

“The hair gets used to clean up oil spills in the ocean and also to fill dog beds. They give it to animal shelters,” Richie said. “I think that’s my favorite thing to tell people, actually, because people either like to go to the ocean or they like animals. So one of those two sparks their interest.”

Or more than likely, both do.

Richie’s love of animals is evident with the presence of Mowgli, her dog, as a customer favorite at the salon. She also has a pet rabbit, but that’s not why she selected a bunny-related name for her business.

“When you look at any eco-friendly product, it’s always stamped with a small rabbit on the back of it,” she said. “So if it’s good enough to put on every eco-friendly product out there, I figured it would be a good name for a salon.”

Plus it would tend to resonate with fans of Lewis Carroll and Jefferson Airplane.

Prior to opening White Rabbit, Richie worked at a salon in Shadyside – that’s where she searched for discarded coffee cups – before moving to Huntington Beach in sunny Orange County, Calif.

“I worked in a little boutique salon out there, right on the beach. It was an amazing setup,” she said. “They introduced me to the Green Circle way of doing hair, and I had no idea that was even a possibility.”

Eventually, she decided to move back to not-quite-as-sunny Western Pennsylvania.

“My family is all here, and when you move across the country, you realize, huh, I’m a five-day drive away from Pittsburgh, or a five-hour flight,” Richie said.

She opened White Rabbit in 2017 as a one-chair salon in Mt. Lebanon, and in April 2019, she purchased a cozy building in Brookline for the new location.

Less than a year later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, shutting her down for what initially was two weeks.

Brookline’s friendly neighborhood salon

“That made sense to me. I have a sister who lives in Spain and a sister who lives in New York,” she said, naming two areas of particular impact in the coronavirus’ early stages.

The closure, though, extended from weeks into months.

“During that time, I didn’t want to be forgotten about, and I wanted my clients to know that I’m still thinking of them and want to do anything they need,” Richie said. “So I started doing online product sales and started to do a lot of online clips to teach people hair care tips, to make them feel better about themselves.”

She also offered something special for one of the year’s biggest days for giving gifts.

“I sell local jewelry in my shop, and I have a woman who makes soaps,” she said. “And so I put this cute little Mother’s Day box together, and people were happy to support local businesses.”

Her own business, of course, has suffered some setbacks because of the pandemic, and she has been seeking grants and other types of assistance that ostensibly are available. But so far, she hasn’t had much success in that regard.

Still, Richie has a positive outlook about White Rabbit Salon.

“I’m open,” she said. “I’m happy to be open, and I’m just going to keep moving forward.”

Customer favorite Mowgli takes a nap at White Rabbit Salon.

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