This document discusses how hair care products are a major source of pollution that is often overlooked. It notes that the water and chemicals used in shampoos, conditioners, dyes, and other hair products exceed the pollution produced by most major industries when considered globally. The author argues that wearing hats more often could help reduce this pollution by decreasing the need for frequent hair washing and product use. Wearing a hat for a month is proposed as a task people should accept to help raise awareness of hair care's environmental impact and potential solutions like cutting one's hair short.

1. A Hat for Pollution Control, January 2018
A Hat for Pollution Control
We all are suffering from pollution. We all want to reduce pollution. Hence, we talk a lot
about it. But, how serious are we? We have confined ourselves in a box of limitations; so
we think a lot, we blame a lot, and the net result is zero. The object of this article is to
present another way to think about the pollution.
Let’s try a game. A simple task is assigned to you. It is up to you to accept the task and
complete it now, or later any time whenever you wish. You just need to accept the same at
this moment. Are you going to accept it?
The task is, “You have to go to your office without wearing any clothes. Only shoes are
allowed, if needed. Wear just no clothes.” Would you accept it? No? Why? OK. If you say it
is too cold, and wearing heavily is a must now, you can just accept the task right now, and
complete the same whenever you wish- maybe in March end or in April. In case your office
has a dress culture, go nude to nearby market, shopping mall, go for a movie or some
marriage or birthday party etc. Still not ready to accept the challenge? OK. There’s another
easier choice for you. You may wear clothes below your waist, but no clothes should be
there above your waist; or just reverse of that.
Finally, if you still refuge to accept the above task, just try to imagine yourself doing so.
Now think! Why have you refused the above task? Did you refuse as you might feel
uncomfortable physically? No. You just refused only on the grounds that you’d look
awkward while walking naked. Had everyone else been doing so, going office without
clothes, perhaps, you might have considered accepting the proposal.
Now, consider another task. Go to office in proper dress, as usual, but do wear a hat. This
way, you hopefully, might be more comfortable. You may easily do it today itself or
tomorrow. But, this task is bigger. You need to wear the hat every day at least for a month
or so. As you accept the task, and ready to wear your hat, I pose another question-
‘Aren’t you worrying about your beautiful hair, hiding below the hat?’
Of course, there might be a little worry. That’s the worry of dandruff, hair fall, and just a
little of suddenly changed look. Now, the question comes, why don’t we always wear a
hat? Dandruff and hair fall has a very easy solution- ‘Just shave your head, or keep small
hair’, though may look funny.
So, the question has now moved from walking nude to walking with a hat. You can cover
your arms, you can cover your chest, you can cover your stomach, you can cover your back,
you can cover your buttocks, and you can cover your legs, but, why not head?
Furthermore, why should one care so much about his or her hairs?

2. A Hat for Pollution Control, January 2018
So, do I find anything wrong with hairs? Yes. To me, these are biggest polluters on the
earth. Believe me, the hair gel, the shampoos, the conditioner, the hair dyeing product,
hair oils; all together make a very big impact on our environment. You apply soap,
shampoo, conditioner, dye, hair oil etc, and during bath these go to drain with water as
waste. Think for some time and gather the relevant data; and you’d find that globally the
pollution caused by the hair care products itself is much higher than posed by any industry.
In general you can say that maintain hair results in significant waste of time, money,
energy, efforts, impact on environment, as well as load on sewage treatment plants.
You might be surprised to note that the water consumed for hair care by all individuals is
much more than the water consumed by any manufacturing industry. Name any industry-
sugar, petroleum, paper, paint, steel, pharmaceutical, textile, fertilizer, food processing,
milk processing, meat processing or any other; every industry as a whole, discharges much
less water than global water drained after caring our hairs. Every industry discharges just a
very little BOD load on environment compared to the same for hair care. Some of the hair
dyeing products have been found containing cancer causing chemicals also; which are
finally discharged to our drains thus affecting our environment adversely.
Pollution control agencies regularly check industries for compliance status and take
necessary action against non-complying ones. They are doing their best to ensure no non-
complying industry can discharge pollutants in environment. The pollution control boards
keep a close eye on pollution discharged from all point sources. But, hairs are there much
above eyes. Hairs stay on the top of our heads. To reduce the pollution, we need to
increase the height of our efforts, and reach up to hairs.
So,
Hats ON.
D K Singhal
deveshksinghal@gmail.com