Getting your hair done can take anywhere from 30 minutes to five hours. While we might get bored sitting in the chair, flipping through magazines, or scrolling on our phone, we probably don't wonder what our hairdressers, who have been on their feet the entire time, are going through. Beauty is pain, but the pain might not only be affecting us.
United Kingdom–based alternative medicine practitioner Hitesh Patel's Facebook photo serves as a reminder that a hairdresser's job is far from easy, especially on his or her body. The photo is of his client, who is a hairdresser, and shows dark, almost bruise-like marks all over her back following a gua sha treatment. It's not unusual for gua sha to leave red marks behind, but her back was in such despair that Patel wanted to use it as a PSA.
Those marks aren't bruises, according to Patel — they're petechiae, which are red spots that form when capillaries, or tiny blood vessels, break open and leak into the skin. For this woman, her petechiae appeared due to built-up stagnation in the muscles from the repetitive posture and positions hairdressers have to be in, Patel told Metro.
"The static load posture creates some imbalance in the muscles and we get a resulting postural strain and often resulting discomfort that if unattended can be quite painful and even restrict mobility," Michael Mulholland, an osteopath, told Mamamia.
According to the Guardian, being a hairdresser can put people at risk for arthritis, tendonitis, and other musculoskeletal diseases. (Not to mention other skin conditions and asthma-related problems due to the chemicals and fumes they handle on a daily basis.)
More from CafeMom: Woman With Endometriosis Boldly Shows the Dramatic Changes Her Body Goes Through
Rebecca Walker, a hairdresser for over a decade, started noticing a "really stiff shoulder" that wouldn't go away, she told the Guardian. It turned out to be arthritis, and she ended up having to resign due to the pain in her wrists and hands.
To help combat these problems, Patel suggests hairdressers, or anyone else in similar standing jobs, stretch every day, like through a yoga or Pilates session, and take hot soaking baths with Epsom salts. These people should also look into regular bodywork rituals, like massages or gua sha treatments, which help you move freely once again.
Embedded content: https://media.giphy.com/media/l1J9u6o4vi9ofIG2c/giphy.gif
More from CafeMom: Pregnant Woman's Complaint About Itchy Skin Saved Her Baby's Life
But most importantly, as Patel wrote, everyone else should remember that the "next time you look at your hairdresser and think they have an easy life, think of these pictures and see how much they sacrifice their own health just so your hair can look good!"
