Hairstylists Have Always Been Mental Health Caretakers. Now, They’re Being Trained for It

[Mij]

With new training, hairstylists are offering more than a shoulder to cry on for clients in need of mental health support.

“PsychoHairapy is using hair as an entry point into mental health services,” she says. The organization offers a 12-hour training course in which Dr. Mbilishaka teaches salon workers how to understand the signs and symptoms of mental health issues in their clients along with what she calls “micro-counseling” skills. “This includes how to assess a client for harm to self or others, so that includes suicidal thoughts, homicidal thoughts, and self-injury,” she says. “And then getting into how to impart insights or make referrals to resources.”

A stylist recently told Jordan Hubert about one client who booked an emo cut following a breakup. “This client was really upset and crying in the chair. And at the end of the service, [our stylist] hugged her and said, ‘You’ve lost a bunch of hair that he touched, and now you’re growing hair that he’s never touched,” Hubert recalls. “That is so beautiful, this idea of the newness and that physical representation of moving on.” A haircut, she says, is never just about the hair.
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[bobbler]

Oh ffs

mental health is in reverse. The days where osychology noted a support system and having good relationships where people listen was what made the difference, so it could replace with toxic positivity etc

suggestions that people make someone self conscious by pathologising or over analysing what they say and having non experts encouraged to ‘make diagnoses’ when we’ve a major issue with even professionals being mis-trained to not distinguish exhaustion and illness from mental health … it’s all so harmful. And people need to start saying that

this risks taking AWAY a key touchpoint in some peoples lives if being treated normally and as a human thereby harming and creating mental health problems.

all ‘in the name of’

 

[Mij]

Sometimes making a connection, having closeness, I mean, they have their hands in your hair, and a human listening without judgement for an hour while getting your haircut can benefit a person who suffers from loneliness, depression, anxiety et So many don't have family support and haven't had good experiences with therapists.

I don't think hairstylist are charging extra for the emotional support. As long as they're trained not to give unsolicited advice, then I think it could be a good thing?

Personally, I don't like to talk about my personal life to my hairstylist. He doesn't know I'm disabled or ill for the last 33 years. His father is a retired physician so he likes to talk about health topics and was surprised how much I knew about health issues One time I was so exhausted from talking I almost slipped down off the chair.

I've been cutting my own hair since Covid and talking to myself in the mirror. That works too If I don't like my cut then I only have myself to blame.

 

[oldtimer]

Oh ffs

mental health is in reverse. The days where osychology noted a support system and having good relationships where people listen was what made the difference, so it could replace with toxic positivity etc

suggestions that people make someone self conscious by pathologising or over analysing what they say and having no experts encouraged to ‘make diagnoses’ when we’ve a major issue with even professionals being mis-trained to not distinguish exhaustion and illness from mental health … it’s all so harmful. And people need to start saying that

this risks taking AWAY a key touchpoint in some peoples lives if being treated normally and as a human thereby harming and creating mental health problems.

all ‘in the name of’

ffs indeed!
A long time ago I started cutting my own hair because I couldn't find a hairdresser who would shut up and let me be. There's no privacy in a hair salon.
Relaxing music would be a better option IMHO.

 

[Sean]

I have been giving myself No. 2 buzz cuts for 20 years. Saves a lot of money and hair care.

 

[Amw66]

ffs indeed!
A long time ago I started cutting my own hair because I couldn't find a hairdresser who would shut up and let me be. There's no privacy in a hair salon.
Relaxing music would be a better option IMHO.

Trialling quiet cuts in a couple of salons here ( coverage on radio a few weeks ago ) . Option when you book to have a quiet ( non chatty ) haircut .
It was touted as being neuro divergent / anxiety friendly . Other than discussing what you want done the stylist dosn't speak unless you speak to them.

Seemingly quite popular.

 

[Peter T]

I have been giving myself No. 2 buzz cuts for 20 years. Saves a lot of money and hair care.

My barber very inconsiderately moved to South Africa some thirty years ago, so since I developed ME I have been doing the same.

 

[Wyva]

ffs indeed!
A long time ago I started cutting my own hair because I couldn't find a hairdresser who would shut up and let me be. There's no privacy in a hair salon.
Relaxing music would be a better option IMHO.

My hairdresser is a racist far-right anti-science anti-vaxxer and very chatty (well, guess how I know these). The only reason why I go to her salon is because the salon is in our building, so I literally just have to go to the ground floor. I'm not sure I'd like to start getting mental health advice there.

 

[oldtimer]

Trialling quiet cuts in a couple of salons here ( coverage on radio a few weeks ago ) . Option when you book to have a quiet ( non chatty ) haircut .
It was touted as being neuro divergent / anxiety friendly . Other than discussing what you want done the stylist dosn't speak unless you speak to them.

Seemingly quite popular.

I wonder what proportion of customers ask for it. That would be really interesting to know.

My hairdresser is a racist far-right anti-science anti-vaxxer and very chatty (well, guess how I know these). The only reason why I go to her salon is because the salon is in our building, so I literally just have to go to the ground floor. I'm not sure I'd like to start getting mental health advice there.

Haha. That sounds more interesting than the usual " how's your day been" stuff.

 

[Lou B Lou]

That is a terrible idea. It will produce a load of amateur psychologists, over imaginatively attributing their customers with psychological problems they may or may not have. And who do the psychologist-hairdresser's report to? Or are they given the mini training and sent out to be mini psychotherapists with no support? As Drs see non existent psychological conditions all over the place, especially (but not exclusively) in women ('they see it everywhere'), encouraging barely trained hairdressers 'to see it' in their customers, every working day, sounds like a disaster in the making.

 

[NelliePledge]

My hairdresser comes to my house I only have a cut. I probably talk more than she does. Last time I was giving advice about dealing with her 13 year old (I have no parenting experience)

 

[Mij]

We have 'salon suites' here where stylist pay rent for one fully equipped custom room in a building. It's very nice because you have privacy and don't have to smell products from hair colouring et. or listen to other clients conversations. He also uses fragrance-free products for those of us who are sensitive.

We also have a hair salon in my building, my sister went when she was visiting and told me all they talk about are their cats.

 

[Eleanor]

“PsychoHairapy is using hair as an entry point into mental health services,” she says. The organization offers a 12-hour training course in which Dr. Mbilishaka teaches salon workers how to understand the signs and symptoms of mental health issues in their clients along with what she calls “micro-counseling” skills. “This includes how to assess a client for harm to self or others, so that includes suicidal thoughts, homicidal thoughts, and self-injury,” she says. “And then getting into how to impart insights or make referrals to resources.”

A stylist recently told Jordan Hubert about one client who booked an emo cut following a breakup. “This client was really upset and crying in the chair. And at the end of the service, [our stylist] hugged her and said, ‘You’ve lost a bunch of hair that he touched, and now you’re growing hair that he’s never touched,” Hubert recalls...

Needing intervention for homicidal thoughts and needing a chat and a hug after a breakup are just not in the same category of therapy, however much the person selling the service says they are.

 

[Mij]

True, they are very different.

The thing is that almost half of their clients open up to them about very personal issues, issues they might not share with their own doctor or family. They build trust and relationships with their clients who they see on a regular basis.

A side note. I've had several hairstylist in the past with mental issues of their own and probably shouldn't be advising anyone.

 

[rvallee]

Although not great, I can't see how this could be any worse than the standard biopsychosocial CBT McPsychology type that has become an industry standard in recent years. The bar has been set so low that this idea is in no way worse than the average of what's out there now.

The idea behind it is even clearly a game of chance. They take the notion that 1 in X will get some sort of benefit, even though most won't, and that makes it worth it to them. Even though it's comically not even close to make economic, let alone clinical, sense. It's not meant to be individually effective or useful, there are no genuine efforts going towards that, because they can't let go of flawed models that offer simple-but-wrong solutions to complex problems.

In many ways, mental health care today is worse than it ever was. In other ways it has improved, mostly culturally, but what's been made worse has been so awful that things are far worse overall. It's a model of neoliberal medicine, where every institutional failure is turned into a matter of personal responsibility, and individual outcomes don't matter.

In fact this is just a normal derivation of this model. The standard has been set that anyone with a 10 hour certificate can provide first line mental health care. Obviously they can't, but that's where the bar has been set.

Eventually they may start to get it, but it will be too late by then. Just like public health disease control measures have been effectively rendered inoperative and useless, so has the basic concept of mental health. It's been done so incompetently for so long that there's no righting the ship anymore.

This is the future they built, they won't like any of it, but they will refuse to change any of it, because they ideologically locked in and scientifically inept, lacking the very psychological flexibility they teach about, not even aware that they lack it.

 

[Trish]

If the training is in the form of 'be a good listener, don't argue with or offer advice on how people manage their lives, and have a pile of leaflets available with links to reputable sources of support, that's fine. Any more seems to me inappropriate.

 

[Mij]

People with mental health issues will tell you that they just need someone to listen and don't want you to try to fix problems or come up with solutions.

 

[perchance dreamer]

I wouldn't want my stylist giving mental health advice. She's the queen of conspiracy theories.

It does seem like it could be good for stylists to get trained in recognizing possible skin cancers on the scalp or back of the neck, as long as they didn't diagnose. If they saw something of concern, they could suggest that the client get it checked out by a dermatologist.