6 Things We’re Stoked About Today.

#planttrees  #plantmoretrees

Trees are like the vacuums of our planet. Through their leaves and bark, they suck up harmful pollutants and release clean oxygen for us to breathe. Trees filter the water we drink, and provide habitat to over 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity.

As members of One Percent for the Planet, we donate 1% of gross sales each year to an environmental cause. This year, we’re planting 1,782 trees, either in Yosemite to replace trees burned in recent fires; or in Colorado, to replace trees lost to beetles in the northern forests that keep our whole country’s air clean; or in the Pacific Northwest to revive the salmon waterways that produce the food Orca whales need to survive.

This is your final chance to vote, and to learn more about some of America’s trouble spots at the same time.  The more we all know, the better.

VOTE NOW

This year CULT+KING will be Silver Sponsor of the 2nd Annual Hair Ball in Oakland, California on August 18, 2019. It’s a hair industry event and Planned Parenthood Fundraiser in one, this year expanding to a big new venue with 500 tickets for sale, hair demos, meeting all your favorite stylists and style icons from across the country in one place at one time. It’s like Instagram Live. We’ll be there, of course, with our legendary tool table – the lowest price you’ll ever pay anywhere for C+K Tools.

An even though it is fun, Hair Ball’s reason for being is fundraising for an organization that has never needed us more. Show up for what we believe in.  Much respect for Corinna Hernandez and the team at Pony Education for stepping up to organize this event for a second year.

TICKETS

This one’s our baby, where we at CULT+KING focus our talent, time and treasure. We are determined to produce haircare and styling products with all the performance and none of the toxins.

“What toxins?“ some say.  “There are toxins in personal care products? How can that be when there are shelves and shelves and whole stores full of them?  Who would let them sell products that are bad for us?”

Well, that’s a big question you should discuss with everyone who will listen like your mother, best friend, carpool, professor, spiritual leader, local activist, Ralph Nader, Oprah, the universe.  But the answer is Yes, there are lots of ingredients in so many of the products we buy that are not good for us, and that are making us sick. (Start watching documentaries.)

Here’s a good one:  “But isn’t our skin an impenetrable barrier that protects us from any substance we touch?”

Our skin is a bonafide miracle. It’s good, but it’s not that good. All kinds of things get through our skin all the time. There are even drugs that they put a patch on your arm and deliver that way.

Last month we read in the promotional materials of a multi-national health and beauty company that “everything you put on your skin is in your organs in 26 seconds.”  We believed it because this company has a huge team of lawyers and scientists backing them up, but then we remembered they are a conglomerate and you can’t believe a word they say.  So we are currently scouring scientific journals to confirm this compelling “26 seconds” fact.  In the meantime, here are some things we know for sure:

  • The skin on your scalp and forehead is MUCH more absorbent than the skin on your forearm, for instance. Some sources say 4x more, some say 10x more.
  • Damp or wet skin absorbs up to 10x more of the same substance than dry skin.
  • Heat also plays a role in skin absorption.  Warm skin and warm substances are more easily absorbed than cold.
  • The more often you apply a substance, the more it absorbs over time.  So it you put something on your scalp every day for ten days, more of it will absorb on the tenth day than on the first.
  • Lastly, the absorption rates of the skin on your private parts is SUPER high versus any other skin on your body.

WHEN YOU ADD UP THE DATA, WHAT YOU PUT ON YOUR WET, WARM SCALP MATTERS. (Let alone what runs all over your body in the shower.)

Learn more about CULT+KING products, designed to deliver all the performance without the toxins.

What local organizations do you belong to? Connecting with your fellow humans face to face and sharing ideas is always a great idea. Membership across the country has been sliding for decades, including civic, political, social, volunteer, philanthropic, community, work-related and religious organizations. (There’s a fascinating book about this written by Robert D. Putnam called “Bowling Alone” as in, we used to bowl in leagues and now we bowl alone.)

This week Jared was talking to Kylie Howell, barber and owner of Friar Tuck’s Barbershop in Salt Lake City (also a CULT+KING authorized retailer) about the Utah LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce’s goals and programs. We joined the next day.  We’re excited to learn more about how we can make a difference.

Happy Pride Month.

Meet Nick Gradinger.  He’s a cool guy going places, passionate about changing the food conversation, a delight to hang with, and  a CULT+KING user, of course. Nick is the co-founder of Vessel Kitchen, a fast casual start-up in our town, now growing to multiple locations.

We’re not surprised because it’s one of our favorite places to eat. Everything scratch-made on site. Not a single processed ingredient coming out of a can. Ridiculously delicious because real food tastes amazing. Served to you about 90 seconds after you tell then what you want. Incredible.

If more families ate out like this every day instead of MacDonald’s, it would change the world.  If you’re ever in Salt Lake City or Park City, you’ve gotta go.

Maybe there’s an entrepreneur in your town with a great idea too.  Maybe it’s you.

We don’t mean that kind of wake up with. More like “get woke with.”

You’re wondering. You’re worrying.  You’re unsure.

That’s the mood these days. Everybody. Everywhere. There’s not just one reason for it. It’s a thousand reasons, played out in front of our eyes, on our screens and in the news every day.

Are our collective children going to have the same things we did? When they close their eyes and “see” the future, does it look different than what we saw at their age? Are things really changing as much as they seem, or maybe they’re changing more? What can we absolutely, completely, wholehearted, 100% count on?

Sometimes the truth is right in front of our face. It’s you. You are the only thing you can count on. You are all you have. And you are all you need. You are a force to be reckoned with.

Wake Up.

Your creativity, your zest, your imagination is needed. You will be welcomed with open arms by everyone around you who is waking up too. Sweet slumber is so enticing, and the world is so so exhausting. But the worst thing, the very worst thing would be to sleep through it when your kindness, your ideas, your humor, your teachings, our optimism, your energy, your presence is so very much needed.

There’s no escaping tomorrow.

We see you.  We need you. We are you. We pick you every time.

Thank you to every single person on this journey with us at CULT+KING.