About the project

This research project looks at the role that salon workers play in the emotional lives of their clients. It is led by Dr Hannah McCann at the University of Melbourne and is funded by the Australian Research Council.

While visiting 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 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.

This 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.