Lighting the way to clean water

Jax Salon joins fight to help the environment

Susan Schell

of the Gateway

Jack Call is in the business of making people beautiful, but he’s also an environmentalist at heart.

Call and the staff at Jax Salon, his hair care business on Judson Street in Gig Harbor, is selling candles for “Light the Way,” a project with Aveda salons, to raise funds for clean water projects throughout the United States.

Aveda salons have partnered with the Puget Sound Keepers Alliance for Earth Month 2008.

“At Jax, we are very concerned about people’s health,” said Call, who owns the salon. “At work, I have a view of the harbor. I love what I see, and I think you have to protect what you love.”

The candles cost $10 and are made from certified organic Bulgarian lavender. They burn for 18 hours.

Diane Dubois, a client at Jax Salon, said all of the proceeds go to the Global Green Grant Foundation. Call has received more than $1,000 in candle sales and donations, and he has personally contributed $500.

His goal is to raise $2,800.

“These candles contain a lot of lavender,” he said. “They are essential oil-based and are non-synthetic. They purify the air and create a good experience just walking in the door.”

“This respects his values,” Dubois said of Call. “He respects earth month.”

Call said his salon supports earth month every year and stands by what Aveda sponsors on a monthly basis. When Call began his business in 1982, his salon was the oldest Aveda salon in the state.

Call and his staff are looking forward to expanding their business and their services when the salon moves to a brick building on Harborview Drive, formerly the Harbor Inn Restaurant, in June.

Jax’s current facility is 630 square feet; the new salon will have 2,950 square feet.

The space will allow for new services, such as full spa services in three treatment rooms. Clients will be able to enjoy steam and detox treatments, massages, facials and mud wraps.

“Detox will be a big focus at the new salon,” Call said. “These help get impurities out of the system.”

Call plans to continue his “green” ways at his new salon. The business will not make artificial fingernails because of the toxicity to the air, and it will integrate water-safe systems.

A talented artisan, Call is also building his own tables for the new place out of reclaimed wood.

Call does not believe in bottled water due to the environmental impact of bottling and shipping the product from “who knows where.”

“Gig Harbor has some of the best-tasting water around,” he said. “It comes from natural wells, and the city doesn’t put anything in it.”

Call and the Aveda are on the same wavelength when it comes to campaigning to protect clean water.

“Clean water is life,” Aveda’s ad campaign reads. “Every drop matters.”

Jax Salon candles

Pick up a candle at Jax Salon, 3111 Harborview Drive, Ste. 100 in Gig Harbor.

Lavender scented candles are $10 each. For more information, call 253-851-5599.

Reach reporter Susan Schell at 253-853-9240 or by e-mail at susan.schell@gateline.com.