My daughter's class is learning about community helpers. Her teacher has reached out to parents to speak to the class on their jobs and why they are important to the community, nurses, fire fighters, police offers, paramedics, etc. Which I think is great, but then her teacher reached out to me to speak about how hairstylists help the community. And I thought, "well yes amazing, for sure I will". Then after responding to the email I thought, oh man, outside of feeling great when you leave, how the **** am I a community helper?? So I sat down to prepare notes and quickly realized that I have been undervaluing my industry and the value my clients place on me. I realized, that great feeling when you leave a hair salon is not about vanity, its confidence and feeling relaxed and having someone listen to you and share stories.
Lets start with a quick chat about what we physically do;
cut and colour hair
cleanse and treat hair
chemical services
style/up-style hair for special events
we also make sure all of this is done safely and in accordance with “health and safety” guidelines from Public Health, making sure our working space is clean, sanitized, free from clutter and safe for you as our client.
And the extra pieces;
mentors, educators, and trainers for other hairstylists
we make clients comfortable
support mental health which is very important bc sometimes we just need someone to talk to, or we just want someone to listen to us.
we are very good listeners, and try to help coach people through tough situations
support the community and community events by providing financial support, donate our time, post media
support family lifestyle
build relationships, trust, and friendships
have opportunity to travel to locations for people who are unable to travel (seniors homes/retirement homes or to residential locations for example)
have opportunity to choose environmentally friendly and human friendly products and processes to be socially responsible.
I started looking online and realized that there are many groups of barbers and hairstylists out there supporting mental health and fundraising. I just googled hairstylist role in community and a bunch of interesting links came up.
This one simple ask just made me realize how I didn't have a full grasp on the good we can do, both on a macro and micro scale. Making socially responsible decisions to help other is quite rewarding and I am excited to share this with my daughter's class this week.