Community
We are here to be a part of a thriving local community and believe that everyone is deserving of haircuts. It would be disingenuous not to help ensure that all our neighbours, especially in marginalized communities, have access to a good haircut.
We commit to offering sliding scale haircuts on a regular basis to anyone who needs one on good faith, no questions asked.
To sign up for our Sliding Scale haircut service, please send us an email.
Pay Your Rent
Land acknowledgements alone feel disingenuous; we know this land isn’t ours and isn’t being taken care of properly. We commit to monthly donations to the Nii’kinaaganaa Foundation.
From their website: “Supports community organizers who are hard at work in their communities doing everything from building cultural knowledge to taking political action.”
Dress Code Project
From their website: “Our mission is to empower hair stylists and barbers to give people haircuts that help them look the way they feel. We envision a world where every hair salon and barbershop is a gender affirming, safer space for LGBTQ2S+ clients. We want to provide support, resources and events that help, not only our member salons, but any hairdresser or barber interested in seeking additional knowledge to create safer spaces in their area. We still have a long way to go with education, acceptance and understanding, and it’s our mission to make sure we continue forward momentum.”
"It is not enough to say that we live on Indigenous Land, we have to act as if we do"
〰️ Naomi Klein 〰️
"It is not enough to say that we live on Indigenous Land, we have to act as if we do" 〰️ Naomi Klein 〰️
LGBTQIA+
Color + Shape is 50% queer owned and places huge importance on being an inclusive space for queer and gender diverse folks. We invest in education for all staff to continuously maintain our commitment to being an inclusive environment, especially as the hair salon can be an emotional and traumatizing experience for many. While we make every effort to make sure all guests have a pleasant experience regardless of who you see, anyone is welcome to request a queer staff member or a private room for your time with us.
See our team bios to choose the best stylist for you, or email us for a personal recommendation.
BDS Compliant
We make every effort to keep up-to-date on BDS lists and have made changes to our inventory as new information becomes available. We make every effort to provide quality professional products while paying attention to the ethics of corporations. So many companies are owned by larger corporations — that makes it hard to stay on top of, and being eco-cautious, vegan, LGBTQIA+, and BDS compliant really narrows down the options for us. We can’t claim to be perfect, but we promise to do our best in a world designed to keep people confused and compliant.
Environmental
We designed our salon space with intention right from the start. In our efforts to reduce waste, we sourced pre-loved materials and furniture wherever possible.
Green Circle
The salon industry creates so much waste. We make every effort to divert as much of that waste as possible and use compostable and biodegradable materials when they are available. We partner with Green Circle to help us divert excess waste from landfills.
From their website: “1,284,437 lbs of beauty waste were kept out of landfills and waterways by Green Circle Salon Members last year. 85,800 kWh of clean energy was generated from Waste to Energy last year. 47 metric tons of CO2e were avoided by keeping 157 metric tons of single-use waste (hair color, single-use items, PPE) out of the landfill.”
Davines
Details to come…
To Our Team
While most hairstylists earn commission on their services, we commit to paying each team member a living wage, not minimum wage, until a commission above that amount is reached.
Vegan & Cruelty Free
From what we use in your hair, offer in our snack bar, to what we mop the floors with — everything in Color & Shape is 100% vegan. One of our founders has been operating a 100% vegan salon since 2020 after being frustrated in their own experience of always having to double-check ingredients and ask questions to staff who might not actually know, or be inconvenienced by finding out if there had been any animal-derived ingredients in their products.
Finding quality products that don’t sacrifice quality has been a journey, so while not every product in every line we carry is vegan, we do not carry the ones that aren’t, and we make sure the line itself is fully cruelty-free and not tested on animals.
We are pleased to offer VegOttawa members 15% savings on product purchases.
