Clara Williams-Roldan's journey to a plastic-free life began when she was 16 years old and determined to grow her hair long.

"I went down a whole rabbit hole of really weird alternative ways of washing my hair to achieve that," she says, now 27.

Sydney mother and daughter team Clara and Louise co-authors of Quitting Plastic.

In that rabbit hole, the teenager became exposed to a community of people using shampoo alternatives such as bicarb soda and apple cider vinegar to not only fast-track their locks' growth, but also to avoid plastic.

This new way of living opened her eyes to the "enormous" issue of plastic waste and she became determined to convert her family, a process which produced a new book, Quitting Plastic, co-authored with her journalist mother, Louise Williams.