CHAT SESSION 17 with Dr Hannah McCann
Topic-‘MAKESHIFT’ Counsellors, Hair & Beauty Industry 'MORE’ than Skin Deep
1pm Monday 21st August https://rppfm.com.au
Catch up and listen to our chat session https://megaphone.link/LCRUI9452558802
Hannah (she/her) is a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne and is currently working on a project funded by the Australian Research Council on the emotional relationship between hair and beauty workers and their clients. Hannah is also a passionate advocate for social justice issues, particularly relating to work, gender, and sexuality.
‘Very unsure of what’s to come’: Salon worker experiences of COVID-19 in Australia during 2020
During Australia’s first nationwide COVID-19 lockdown between March and May 2020, when most businesses were closed, hairdressers and barbers were allowed to remain operating. The decision to allow hairdressing salons and barbershops to remain open sat in contrast to most other lockdowns across the world, where these services were forced to close. This decision raised serious workplace health and safety concerns for hair workers around the impossibility of physical distancing, with the peak industry body Australian Hairdressing Association (AHA) calling for the Federal Government to order an industry shutdown and provide attendant financial assistance. No reasoning was provided by the Australian Government as to why hair and barbering services could remain open, while ‘beauty and personal care services’ (including beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salons, tattoo parlours, spas, and massage parlours) were ordered to shut.
The fact that salons were allowed to remain operating, and indeed that some customers still sought out these services, begs questions as to why and indeed whether salons ought to have remained in operation during a public health crisis.
It is crucial to note that the role salon workers can sometimes play is underpinned by the fact that these workers perform emotional labour with their clients.
The positive role that salon workers may play in the lives of some clients does not negate the concerns about health and safety raised within the industry during COVID-19.
Despite the opacity of the Government reasoning, the question that remains is the impact that the overall decision to keep hairdressers and barbers on the open list of businesses had on workers during the period.
The aim of the Dr. Hannah McCann’s survey was to gather reflections from both clients and workers about experiences of visiting and working in salons (or not being able to) and the nature of salon work during the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia during 2020. The survey was in three parts, the first covering demographic information, the second for clients of salons, and the third for salon workers.
There were 383 total responses to the survey, 92 of which were from people with some experience of working in salons.
For those who were working up until the pandemic and whose experiences of salon life changed directly as a result, the predominant feeling reported was anxiety.
There were no significant differences found in the responses between owners and non-owners, with the exception of owners being more likely to report feeling safe and in control and non-owners less likely to report feeling in control.
Workers reported on the kinds of client disclosures encountered as a salon worker, which included general stress, marriage or relationship breakdown, mental health issues (such as anxiety, depression), traumatic experiences, feelings of loneliness or isolation, terminal illness, family, or gender-based violence, struggles with social oppression (such as experiences of racism, homophobia), suicidal ideation and struggles with gender transition. Where respondents selected ‘Other’ prior to COVID-19, this was specified as child neglect, sexual harassment, bushfires, bereavement, job loss and home loss. Where respondents selected ‘Other’ after COVID-19, this was specified as ‘job loss’ – presumably referring to the experiences of clients losing their jobs because of the pandemic.
Many of the salon worker respondents noted that managing clients while operating during the first lockdown period was more difficult than pre-pandemic times.
Fears around the hygiene and the difficulty of social distancing in salon spaces were also noted by many of the workers. Salon work requires physical contact, and the emotional aspects of the job mean that talking and sharing air in proximity is the norm. The impossibility of social distancing was a significant source of stress for many who continued to work through the first lockdown.
The economic pressures of working in the hair and beauty industry during the pandemic and the intersection of this with structural issues (such as whether one was an owner or not) were a key focus.
Many of the respondents noted the personal emotional toll that the pandemic was taking on them, in terms of mental health and enjoyment of work.
Experiences were also highly mixed depending on individual circumstances, yet the common experience was feeling the personal toll as a worker.
It seems that even though financial supports were in place, some owners perhaps still felt that closing their businesses while not technically ordered to would be financially risky and have longer term negative consequences. This created a conflict between some hair salon owners and workers.
Discussion
The survey responses indicated that being a salon worker during COVID-19 in 2020 in Australia was largely a time of high anxiety.
The labour of managing client emotions, already a key aspect of salon work, became intensified during the period for those businesses still open, and safety, economic concerns and personal mental health problems were issues workers had to negotiate.
Conclusion
This study has provided some preliminary insights into the experiences of hair and beauty workers during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 in Australia. Overall, the findings suggest that for this sample of workers, many had high anxiety, were filled with economic concerns, had fears about the virus and had to deal with personal mental health impacts, all the while negotiating their duties as emotional labourers.
Notably, there have been no further nationwide lockdowns in Australia since March 2020, but smaller state-based lockdowns have seen salons shut. These latter lockdowns have not always come with financial support from the Government, nor necessarily with consideration of the other factors raised throughout this article around balancing the role that salon workers play in the lives of their clients with the risks to workers themselves in terms of physical and mental health issues.
‘Makeshift’ Counsellors- Emotional Work in Hair and Beauty Salons.
While visiting hair and beauty salons is often understood in terms of self-care and looking and feeling good, less attention has been given to who is tasked with performing emotional work in salons.
Despite rapid growth in the sector, there is a scarcity of research on the hair and beauty industry in Australia and the role of these workers in the emotional lives of their hundreds of thousands of clients is greatly under-researched.
Dr Hannah McCann’s project aims to answer three key research questions relating to social and emotional work in the beauty industry:
1. What role do salon workers play in the emotional lives of their clients?
2. How can salon workers best be trained and supported in the social and emotional work of their profession?
3. What best practice solutions can be implemented to connect community services with salon professionals?
Hair and beauty salon workers are in frequent contact with diverse members of the community. This project aims to investigate the role that hair and beauty workers play in providing informal social and emotional support for their clients and aims to provide solutions for best practice in connecting community services with salon workers, to address crucial social issues such as family violence, mental health, and social isolation.
You can read about Dr Hannah McCann’s research at www.beautysalonproject.com
Research shows that sensitive topics are often raised by clients in salon environments - This might include mental health concerns, family violence, terminal illness, and more. If you are a salon worker trying to manage client disclosures, or if anything related to this project raises distress, you can contact the following services:
Lifeline Australia 13 11 14
Crisis Support and Suicide Prevention www.lifeline.org.au
1800RESPECT 1800 737 732
National sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling and information referral service - www.1800respect.org.au
Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
Anxiety, depression, and suicide prevention - www.beyondblue.org.au
Relationships Australia 1300 364 277
Relationship support for individuals, families, and communities www.relationships.org.au
QLife 1800 184 527
LGBTIQ+ support and referral - www.qlife.org.au
Cancer Council 13 11 20
Support for cancer patients and their families - www.cancercouncil.com.au
My hope is that when you’re looking at yourself in the
‘The Daily Mirror’
YOU SMILE
EMBRACE BEING YOU
AND FIND 10 MINUTES IN YOUR DAY TO NOURISH YOUR SOUL!
To get in touch with Cathy email smileinthedailymirror@gmail.com
'The Daily Mirror' acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and acknowledges and pays respect to their Elders, past and present.
Comments