For shiny hair, how about some coffee?

Product innovation never ceases to amaze. An energizing example comes from Taiwain where a firm has introduced a shampoo line containing the oil from spent coffee grounds.

The company is O’right, based in Taipei. The shampoo is Recoffee. Initially launched in Taiwan last fall, the shampoo is now sold in Great Britain as well.

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Recoffee appears to be a novelty but in reality it is a savvy sustainability-themed product.

As O’right’s founder, Steven Ko, points out, 14,000 cups of coffee are consumed around the world each second. The leftover grounds quickly add up: 22 million kilograms of coffee grounds are discarded each year.

Recoffee takes a bit of that pile and turns it into shampoo.

Each litre of Recoffee uses the grounds from 16 medium cups of coffee, though only about two per cent of those grounds are actually extracted in the form of coffee oil.

The shampoo has several other sustainability features. Most notably, recycled coffee grounds are added to the packaging, and coffee seeds are embedded in the bottom of the biodegradable bottles. Once empty, the bottles can be put into soil and a coffee tree will start to grow as the bottle decomposes.

READ: New Brunswick's JavaMoose aims to perk up coffee drinkers

“This is a very clever way to integrate recycled ingredients throughout a product offering,” notes Tom Vierhile, insights director at U.K. consumer goods research firm Datamonitor. “The effort shows a level of commitment to ‘green’ marketing that goes beyond the ordinary.”

As for its effects on hair, Recoffee shampoo claims to be rich in anti-oxidants and replenishes hair moisture.

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