Social Impact Heroes: “We believe that the best way to fight human trafficking is to prevent it” With Lorin and Kyle Van Zandt of MISSIO Hair

…we believe that the best way to fight human trafficking is to prevent it. There are people who are more at-risk than others because of circumstantial vulnerabilities. These include the homeless, children in foster care, those struggling with addiction, victims of physical and sexual abuse, and even those with low self-esteem. Finding ways to assist and show love to people in these circumstances actually goes a long way in preventing human trafficking from ever occurring.

As part of my series about “companies and organizations making an important social impact, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lorin and Kyle Van Zandt. Lorin and Kyle are the co-founders of MISSIO Hair, a hair product company that exists to use beauty to restore hope and fight human trafficking. Working as a professional hairstylist serving women emerging from human trafficking alongside her husband Kyle’s desire to fight this injustice led them to create hair products with purpose. Together, they have created stylist-designed and salon-tested hair products that serve as a vehicle to educate salons in victim identification, serve women at-risk and in recovery, and give to non-profit partners. Their double-bottom-line approach is an innovative and effective way the reach customers who want their purchases to matter while unlocking the potential of the beauty industry to directly fight human trafficking.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Lorin: Sure! If you can believe it, my story begins when I was just 15 years old — I started doing hair and quickly became passionate about beauty. For me it was more than a haircut though…I soon realized that beauty could be used to help people in need, and I began giving haircuts to the homeless and those in drug rehab centers. I saw the…