When John Masters started styling hair just out of high school in 1975, the health risks posed by inhaling and handling harsh salon chemicals were barely a passing concern. After embracing organic foods, he began investigating the dangers of chemicals such as ammonia and sulfates, staples in most hair dyes and highlighting treatments.

Using nontoxic bases, Masters developed his own line of hair-care blends (shop) from essential oils, plant extracts, and health-food staples.

“For my first wholesale order at Barneys New York, I filled every bottle by hand with a funnel,” he recalls. By 1994, he had launched his salon just off the SoHo grid, and today his line includes skin-care products and doggie wash.

Though he no longer mixes by hand, Masters spends months developing his products with chemists and herbalists. He also imports most of his ammonia-free, clay-based hair dyes from Italy because they aren’t distributed in the United States.

Text adapted from www.johnmasters.com