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Fort Simpson salon gives back

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Fort Simpson has been home to Beauty Mark, a two-chair hair salon, for the past three years, and in those years the owner has been finding ways to help out his region and the environment.

Troy Bellefontaine, owner of the Beauty Mark hair salon in Fort Simpson, has started an ambitious recycling program at his business and is now bringing free books to kids across the Deh Cho. photo courtesy of Troy Bellefontaine

In addition to helping out with the SPCA, Troy Bellefontaine has teamed up with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, with the intent of eventually getting every kid in the Deh Cho between the ages of 0 and 5 signed up for the free-book-a-month program.

“I had gone down to Calgary to see [Dolly Parton] in concert recently and she talked about it there,” says Bellefontaine.

Thinking it would be a great way to get kids excited about reading, Bellefontaine brought the program to Fort Simpson. The Liidlii Kue First Nation has partnered with him and some village councilors have donated to the cause, he says, and he is reaching out to other communities to get kids across the region into the program.

Registration opened at the end of November for kids. Ten children in the Deh Cho registered in time to get a book in December. In January, 42 children will get a book.

“If we can expose children to reading and get them more books, there’s so many benefits down the road,” says Bellefontaine.

As well, January will mark one full year that Beauty Mark has recycled close to all of the waste it produces—including hair. Beauty Mark was the first NWT hairdresser to join Green Circle Salons, a nation-wide organization that aims to divert waste from salons in its membership.

“The hair that we cut off people’s heads is used for oil booms that soak up oil spills,” says Bellefontaine. “Some people, they thought it was really cool that their hair was going to be used for something rather than just in the landfill.”

Bellefontaine says reducing waste matters a lot to him, especially living in a town as small as Fort Simpson, situated next to such an important waterway as the Mackenzie River.

“There’s a lot of industries out there that create a lot of waste, and I just thought, if I’ve got a business that makes profit but we’re causing pollution, we should try to offset that any way we can,” he said.

Bellefontaine says his business has filled a big garbage bag full of hair, packed tight, throughout the past year.

He’s been absorbing all the costs of recycling for the past year but in January he’s moving to split it with the customer, who’ll pay $1.50 per cut as a recycling fee going forward.

Beauty Mark also recycles its empty colour containers, foil, and leftover colour and bleach.

“We recycle up to 95 per cent of our waste,” says Bellefontaine.