They're at the beach every day. Surfers, swimmers, and paddlers come out of the ocean after a solid workout, quickly make their way up the beach, and take a cleansing shower. Many times they're rushing straight off to work or to some other social commitment. Pressed for time, they can't afford the quick stop at home for a proper bath and change of clothes. I've done it a bunch of times myself actually, and it's pretty much unavoidable for overscheduled working ocean enthusiasts who're in the usual mad rush. Unfortunately, many of them use commercial soaps and shampoos to achieve the desired fresh clean feel after their saltwater activities. As I'd mentioned in a previous piece, I'm no holier-than-thou environmental champion, and am still very much in the midst of the learning and transitioning mode from cavalier, slipshod consumerist cyclops to the gleaming guardian prince of all things Eco. OK, that was a little dramatic ... I'm just trying my best to rethink and improve on past bad habits.
And yet, as ignorant as I was about the environment as a youngster, one thing I never did was to use soap or shampoo in the beach showers, as most showers are built just a scant few feet off the waterline. Common sense tells you that your sudsy runoff is going straight into the ocean, and that couldn't be good for the fish, reef, and water. Me, I figure that if I couldn't make it home to bath, well then I certainly wasn't going to take it out on the ocean, and if I at least wait till I get home, the soapy water will be treated in a wastewater plant. Even then, I always try to keep use to a minimum. In an effort to be helpful, people often kokua leftover soap bars and little shampoo bottles at beach showers for others to use. Sorry folks, that's really nice of you and all, but I remove them. There are over a million people across Hawaii bathing every day (you'd hope), and untold millions of gallons of soapy bathwater eventually finds its way to the sea. We ocean lovers, especially, don't need to exacerbate the problem any further by making untreated direct deposits, so to speak.
To borrow a phrase from George W, commercially produced soaps, and conditioners are the "great evil doers" that contribute to the fouling of our beloved Mother Ocean. There are many organic, natural alternatives that can give our reefs and fish a needed reprieve.
Traditionally, bath soaps consist of three basic ingredients; oil, water, and lye. The oils can be animal or plant, and lye causes the mixture to coagulate in a chemically reactive process called "saponification." Sometimes there are paraben preservatives, color dyes, tallowates, triclosan, acids, and other weird sounding chemicals present in the mixture. The internet consensus seems to be that long term use of commercial made soaps and shampoos could be harmful to humans, and none of them are good for the environment.
So for the purposes of this article, I set out to find and try out some eco-friendly or sea soaps and shampoos that surfers and other ocean athletes could use that would be less harmful to the environment. I browsed Down to Earth, Whole Foods, Macy's, Umeke Market, and a few other shops and boutiques around Honolulu. I saw plenty available, but one brand that kept turning up and jumping up at me were the North Shore Soap Factory's line of Hawaiian Bath & Body products. For one, they're a local manufacturer, and two, their products were all-natural organic, free of synthetic treatments and caustic additives.
The North Shore Soap Factory resides in an oddly shaped but quaint building that once served as a cane fiber storage silo. The NSSF has been manufacturing, retailing, and distributing their organic handmade soaps and body care products since 1996.
I contacted the company's president, Jerry Driscoll, and asked him for an opinion on why ocean users should not use commercial soaps at the beach. He was more than happy to offer one. "People have been using these toxic cocktails for years and hammering our reefs," he said. "Not only is prolonged use bad for your skin, it's very bad for the environment."
Living and playing on the North Shore and aware that people use commercial stuff at the beach, Jerry does what he can to educate local consumers on why it's better to go organic. The idea for the North Shore Soap Factory came about when a friend of the Driscoll family gave them natural soaps as a gift. The entrepreneurial light went on for the Driscoll's, and the NSSF was born in 1996. It's one of very few manufacturers and purveyors of organic soap in Hawaii, and they boast a growing list of market retailers who sell their products across Hawaii, Guam, Alaska, the mainland US, and the world wide web. The factory is located in the old Waialua Sugar Mill on Oahu's North Shore. I'd like to note that their stuff is available in several locations outside of Hawaii that have surf and surfers; Guam, Alaska, Texas, Alabama (yes, there's surf there), Florida, New York, New Hampshire, Maryland, and California. I'd include Wisconsin too, but Sheboygan Point doesn't break that often.
NSSF President Jerry Driscoll hard at work. As a local surfer, diver, and fisherman, Jerry's passion for the environment translates into the products he makes and endorses. "We were green even when green wasn't cool," he says proudly.
Jerry's wife Debora offered more details on their chemistry versus that of commercial soaps; "Hawaiian Bath & Body all-natural soaps are made with our unique 4-part vegetable oil base with added Hawaiian kukui & macadamia nut oils. In the 10+ years we've been making soap, we've never used harsh chemicals, and this applies to all of our skin care products. In formulating our products, we take great care in using natural and organic ingredients; gentle exfoliants like kiwi seeds, organic oatmeal & tangerine peel, moisturizers like kukui nut, macadamia nut, avocado, sweet almond and jojoba oils, natural humectants like vegetable glycerin & Vitamin E. We never use ingredients like propylene glycol (used in brake fluids, anti-freeze, paints!); methyl-butylparaben (synthetic preservative sthat have questionable health implications); sodium lauryl sulphates (foaming agents found in shampoo, toothpaste, bar & liquids soaps, dish washing detergents, engine cleaners & degreasers). SLS is known to irritate by denaturing the skin causing drying, cracking, irritated scalp & eyes, and may be a contributing factor in male fertility problems and breast cancer. Some say these harsh chemicals are safe in small quantities, and because they're very cheap, they're used widely in commercially produced skin care products sold to the masses."
For quality assurance purposes, the crew at NSSF lovingly blends, pours, cuts, and packages all their products by hand.
Although they don't carry an organic version of traditional hair shampoos, Jerry says that the Tropical Body Wash can be used to clean shorter hair and the kukui oils as leave-in moisturizers. Out of curiosity, I compared the ingredient descriptions from a box of Irish Spring to one for Hawaiian Bath & Body Mango Papaya soap. Here are the primary listed ingredients:
- Irish Spring – sodium tallowate, tallow acid, sodium chloride, pentasodium pentetate, polyethylene, pentaerythrityl, hydroxyhydrocinnamate, titanium dioxide, FD&C Blue no.1 alumimum lake, chromium oxide green.
- Mango Papaya – saponified oils of coconut, palm, olive, and soybean.Hawaiian macadamia & kukui nut oils, organic rice flour, papaya seed, mango and pineapple fragrance.
Doesn't even look close, does it? One sounds like a chemical witch's brew and the other like a killer fruit smoothie. The appearance, feel, and smell of natural soaps just seem to project health, wholesomeness, and eco-friendliness. It's like you could almost eat them, they're so ... natural ...and made of Earthy products you might see in many savory foods. I found them able to make me feel as clean as any commercial bar soap. Frankly, I'm going to continue to abstain from using any soap or shampoo at the beach. But if you guys absolutely must wash up at the beach, please, use organic products if you truly care about your ocean, reefs, and marine life.
My wife Terri and her newest, most favoritest goodies from the North Shore Soap Factory. She has tons of bath products already, but I don't mind at all that she spends a little more to support an environmentally keen local business and more importantly, helps reduce the chemicals in our ocean. Oh, and she smells great too!
If time allows, take a day and make the leisurely drive up to beautiful Waialua town and visit the North Shore Soap Factory in person (there's a map and directions on their website). If you can't, their products are available at Whole Foods, all Down To Earth stores, other fine shops across Oahu and the neighbor islands, and on their online catalog. Yeah, the products cost a little more, but you'd only really need them at the beach, right? Click on the links below for a personal YouTube factory tour with Jerry and find out more on their website. Be clean!
Clean ocean, clean soap, clean body, and a cleaner conscience. What's not to love?
YouTube link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jf7vWgs8DYNSSF/Hawaiian Bath & Body website:
hawaiianbathbody.com
