Beauty Meets Environmental Ethos at Ash & Willow Eco Salon

Ash & Willow Eco Salon & Beauty Apothecary combines cosmetologist Holly Santelli’s two main passions—creating beauty and environmental stewardship. The eco-friendly salon’s locations in Park Ridge and Barrington offer a full menu of environmentally conscious hair and nail services, waxing, lashes and brows, and tanning.

The Park Ridge location also features The Nest, a space for holistic healing with reiki, massage, healing touch, yoga, meditation and more.

While growing up in Michigan, Santelli had an eye toward a career in interior design and pursued the profession in college, but later changed paths. She attended the Ferrari School of Cosmetology, formerly located in Battle Creek, Michigan, to pursue hair design. After practicing cosmetology at salons in Michigan, she moved to Chicago with her family. She was a stay-at-home mom for 15 years and set up a small salon in her basement.

“After we’d drop off the kids at school, the moms would come over to my basement salon to get their hair done,” Santelli recalls.

As her children got older, Santelli decided to return to work in a salon setting. As an environmentally conscious person, she noticed the high volume of chemical products used in traditional salons, along with a lot of waste. In 2017, her dream of creating an eco-friendly salon that encompassed a high level of customer service came to fruition when she opened Ash & Willow.

In 2023, she purchased an existing salon in Barrington and opened Ash & Willow’s second location.

Striving for Near-Zero Waste

Santelli explains that they use hair care products that are botanically based, eco-friendly and cruelty-free to reduce harm to people and the planet.

“We partner with brands that use organic, plant-based ingredients, but are also giving back to the Earth to make up for what they take, such as replanting botanicals and providing employment for underserved populations,” Santelli says. Ash & Willow’s preferred brands include Kevin Murphy and Aveda.

As a certified Green Circle Salon, Ash & Willow implements a recycling program that includes items such as hair coloring tubes, foils, combs and locks of hair from haircuts.

“We recycle things that you normally can’t recycle, like color tubes. We mail in a giant box of recycled items each week to Green Circle,” Santelli explains. “There is lots of waste in salons, but even in our nail spa, we recycle emery boards and all the cotton used to remove nail polish.”

Santelli hopes to implement a recycling plan soon for the public to bring in items such as aerosol cans and beauty waste from home. The entire Ash & Willow staff is trained in separating recyclables to comply with the Green Circle program.

There is a nominal eco-upcharge of $2 per service to offset Ash & Willow’s cost of participating in Green Circle. Santelli notes that the occasional customer balks at the upcharge, but most come to Ash & Willow with the same eco-mindset and appreciate the salon’s environmental efforts.

The Nest, which offers holistic services at the Park Ridge location, features an array of classes for yoga, reiki, meditation, shamanic wellness, plant and floral energy, and muscle testing. The space can accommodate up to 15 people. Santelli describes it as an energetically clean space, and she has the salon energetically cleared several times per year.

Santelli will soon implement a reiki hair styling program that combines a reiki session with a shampoo, blowout, an eye pillow and a comforting blanket. The shampoo room has sound healing music to offer a calm and relaxing space.

Ash & Willow stylists give free monthly haircuts to participants in the Avenues to Independence program, which serves people with special needs. The salon also participates in local food drives and donates services to charity raffles and fundraisers.

Santelli hopes to expand The Nest with a larger yoga and meditation studio,  and add halo salt therapy.

“I love introducing stylists to this world of being eco-conscious and intentional,” Santelli concludes. “To own a business that does good things in the world and makes a difference allows customers to experience a relaxing space, feel welcome and included, and be a part of something bigger.”

Ash & Willow Eco Salon & Beauty Apothecary is located at 610 Devon Ave., in Park Ridge, and 104 S. Cook St., in Barrington. For more information, call 847-696-7560 (Park Ridge) or 847-387-4335 (Barrington) or visit AshWillowSalon.com.