It has come to light more than ever that mental health is a real issue in America today. According to the National Alliance on mental illness https://www.nami.org/About-NAMI/Â 1 out of 5Â adults live with mental illness and 1 out of 20 US adults experience serious mental illness.
I recently have been reading about hairstylist in the industry that are dealing with clients who come in and trauma dump during their appointments. The stylists are emotionally and physically drained by the end of the day and some are even quitting the industry.
What is trauma dump in the hair industry? It’s when clients unload their baggage on the hairstylist or Barbers. Not just venting but toxic venting and oversharing. This can be conversations that are sometimes inappropriate or uncomfortable. Clients may not have emotional support in their lives are great friendships where they feel comfortable enough to share with them. Hairstylist and barbers are also physically connected to our clients. We are constantly touching their hair, skin and nails.
I myself have heard some crazy things in my time at work. Things I wish I didn’t hear. I have a couple of negative clients where everything in their life is just horrible. Trying to give positive feedback most of the time gets shot down. Most of my client relationships are very pleasant and as I’ve gotten older, I no longer serve those clients that drained me.
You’ve heard the saying hairdressers are like therapist, well we really are not. We do not have the tools to compartmentalize other people’s trauma. We are not health care professionals or psychologist.
Some hairstylist say this comes with the industry and learn to deal with it. How? I have a couple of suggestions and tools that I’ll get to in just a minute.
This is our career and we need to take back control.
We shouldn’t always feel so emotionally and physically drained when we come home where we can’t even take care of ourselves or our families. We have to guard our mind and our heart. What I mean by that is we have to protect our thoughts and emotions from negative influences around us. We need to cultivate a positive and peaceful environment at our workplace so we don’t bring that negativity home with us.
Let’s get to some of the suggestions:
Set some boundaries. Let the client know that you acknowledge their feelings and validate their experience. Let them know that you are just not in a place where you can offer the support that they need right now. Suggest they see a therapist or counselor who is more qualified to help them.
If you do not feel comfortable saying this to your client, then I highly suggest that you go to a manager or your boss and have them do it for you. I understand that this can be really hard for somebody who is an introvert.
Redirect the conversation. If you do not feel comfortable asking them to stop sharing their trauma you can always try to redirect the conversation to another subject. You can do this by validating their feelings, and then suggesting that you talk about something more positive to take their mind off of of what they are experiencing.
Fire the client.
Our time is precious. We can’t fix a mentally broken people. Again we are not trained to be therapists. When all else fails, we have to let that client go. As hairdressers we get to choose whose hair we do. I care about people, but I cannot have somebody sucking the life out of me every time they sit in my chair.
If you would like to know how you can be of more help to your client who is suffering a trauma, I found a course that you can take. https://www.psychohairapy.org/This course helps people in the beauty industry promote wellness messages in their conversations. I personally have not taken this course but find it interesting that this is the only information that I found online that helps hairdressers how to talk to their clients who may have a mental illness.
Â
If you are a hairdresser or barber in the industry, please share any of your suggestions you have or any experiences with trauma dumping.
Â
