ARGH! My hair is not sustainable!!

I have been in a quandary for a while about my hair, which isn't currently, but often is synthetic dreadlocks. At the moment it is woven in human hair dreadlocks. Each has its pros and cons.

The main problem with synthetic dreads lies in the name.... synthetic. As in man made, as in plastic. I avoid plastic where possible, I try to buy natural fibres (although I get guilt over non-organic cotton and the would-be vegan in me has to be squashed every time i buy wool - is there no simple answer?), so why do I have PLASTIC hair?

I feel that my hair is a small drop in the ocean... I maybe use 4 packets of hair per year, each pack is 3oz i think, so not a huge concern. Although it is Chinese produced which throws in more questions and doesn't give any answers, and it comes in packaging, plastic packaging. I do rewear my hair, and i keep it all or sell it, it never goes in landfill.

I do a lot of green things and think that this one little luxury should be OK.

Then I read George Monbiot's blog about how small actions allow people to overlook the bigger ones/. Obviously i am aware of this. When I went on my holiday by international rail last year I was met with criticism from many who fly who told me I did all my recycling and the like. As if my recycling could possibly cancel out hauling a 440 tonne hunk of metal into the sky spilling out jet fuel as it goes. This is what people think though. "Oh I took my own bag to the shop, I can go in my 4x4 and it will all cancel out". They do it with everything, "Oh I walked to work this morning, aren't I healthy, I can have fish and chips for tea and it will all cancel out.... In fact I even took the stairs instead of the lift, I'll have a donut to boot". Um... no.

I don't want to be one of these people though, I try to be more mindful of these things. Now, I don't think my hair could be worse than all the things I do do (except of course if we consider the many pit falls I may accidentally have fallen into), but I also don;t want to be merely neutral. If my hair has cancelled out all the good I do then my foot print is not reduced.

Part of me wants to ignore the issue here and assume my hair has minimal impact (well, I assume it has a big impact else I wouldn't bother, but y'know, minimal environmental impact) but I'm not sure how well the brush-it-under-the-carpet approach suits me. What do you think?

I have not the answers. I like to look good, feeling positive about myself leads me to be more proactive about the other things I care about. It's a complex web. But I am not a fly and don't have to be caught in it. I could find some fo' sure enviornmentally friendly hair. I don't know what that is though... human hair extensions have the potential to have a high social cost (that would be for another blog), natural hair has more washing and styling in it, which uses more water, more product and more electricity. I could go completely au-naturel, but tbh that isn't going to be an option. The web gets stickier and I can see the spider approaching me and I haven't even begun to find the answer.

There is wool, but again the would-be vegan in me debates which is better.

I haven't even talked about dye yet!,