Our Healthy Hairdresser this week, Jennifer Friederich, has owned Hat Heads Sports Salon, a men’s salon in Palos Heights, IL, for ten years. Recently, she decided to go back to school to get her massage license. For a class assignment, Friederich was asked to write an article for potential publication in a magazine. Friederich's article below provides good advice for salon pros, and MODERN SALON Healthy Hairdresser is delighted to share it!
Get a Massage Where You Work!
It wasn’t until I went back to school for massage therapy that I realized what I had been missing out on. I had this perk and wellness benefit right in front of me and never used it. For many hair stylists, the world of massage therapy is right at our fingertips, but we do not take the time to utilize it. We spend our day making sure our clients look good and feel good and often forget about ourselves. We go home at night with sore backs and tight shoulders, and then we get up the next day and do it all over again.
Repetitive-use syndrome is flooding our industry, from carpal tunnel conditions to a limited range of motion in our shoulders. We also stand on our feet all day, using our legs and glut muscles, and don’t forget about our poor backs! The blow drying, shampooing, cutting and coloring all day long means that our arms are always in the air, and we’re standing on our legs and feet always day.
All of these aches and pains can be removed if we utilize the benefits right in front of us. Getting into the books of the massage therapists at your salon once a month would take some of the pressure off of those muscles and flush out some of the toxins stored in our bodies, not to mention the benefits of massage as far as general wellness goes. They say an hour of massage is equivalent to eight hours of sleep. Who couldn't use that?
We love our clients and would do pretty much anything to make them feel good—right? But if we don’t start taking better care of ourselves, we won’t be able to take care of them. Book that appointment today and start getting some relief on those poor muscles you have been abusing your entire career.—Jennifer Friederich
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