Go Travel !

Anita Roddick With The Masai

“It wasn’t only economic necessity that inspired the birth of The Body Shop. My early travels had given me a wealth of experience. I’ve always said that travel is the best university; getting from one place to another means more than physical movement. It also entails change, challenge, new ideas and inspirations….I had this idea of making little products like shampoo and so forth using ingredients I had found when I traveled.You change your values when you change your behaviour. When you’ve lived six months with a group that is rubbing their bodies with cocoa butter, and those bodies are magnificent, or you wash your hair with mud, and it works, you go on to break all sorts of conventions, from personal ethics to body care. Then, if you’re me, you develop this stunning love for anthropology.Because I have the interest of living with indigenous groups of people and pre-industrial groups, I learned so much. For example, when your shampoo is gone, you end up mashing up stuff to put in your hair. You put on mayonnaise, eggs, anything to clean and scrub. It is real experiences that change your values.”-Anita Roddick