Remember Horst Rechelbacher (1941-2014)

                Horst Rechelbacher is most well-known for founding the Aveda corporation. He died February 15th from pancreatic cancer. Horst dedicated most of his life to transforming the way we view the things we put on our bodies. He argued that everything we use on our skin should be safe enough to eat. The philosophy of his most recent line Intelligent Nutrients is, "If it’s good enough to go on your body, it should be good enough to go into your mouth." This philosophy is stated clearly on the Intelligent Nutrients website. Horst was an active environmentalist and incorporated a lot of Ayurvedic principles, aromatherapy, and his knowledge of plant-based medicine into his products. He spent time studying these practices in India and went on to collaborate with other members of the integrative medicine community in the U.S. (read more here).

Horst was born in Austria and first learned about plant medicine through his mother who was an herbalist. He started apprenticing at a barbor shop when he was 14 and by the 1960s he was touring Europe and the U.S. talking about styling. It was on one of these tours that Horst was in a car accident near the Twin Cities, Horst stayed to work off his hospital bills and never left (read full article here). 

Horst was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer around a decade ago, and it's vague as to how much energy he put towards going to the doctor or for checkups, but it is clear that he devoted himself to his healthy lifestyle. 

We will remember Horst for all the amazing ways he has transformed the beauty industry into a more conscientious place to be nourished. Instead of the old "beauty is pain" ideology, he turned it into a healing process that served the whole body.