When hairdresser Kelly Vowles noticed her clients were spending all their time looking at themselves in the mirror and picking out their flaws, she had a radical solution.
Kelly, who owns Pixal-Rose Hair Design in Swindon, Wiltshire, decided to remove the mirrors so they didn’t spend hours looking at themselves.
The 37-year-old said watching documentaries on plastic surgery reinforced her feeling that there is too much pressure on people to look a certain way.
They now have mirror-free stations to stop patrons staring at themselves but there’s still four ‘traditional’ workstations if someone prefers to have one.
Kelly said: ‘Some people come to the salon for four to five hours, having their hair colour done, and what we noticed is while they are staring at the mirror, they pick faults in themselves.
‘For example, they focus on their wrinkles, or on how tired they look.
‘But by taking the mirror away on some of the workstations people won’t be staring at themselves for so long and what we are hoping is that it will take that kind of edge off of it.’
Kelly isn’t the first to think of the concept – DKUK in Peckham is also mirror-free and she actually got the idea from Tame the Mane in Bristol, where she previously worked.
She adds: ‘I think there’s a lot of pressure on people to look a certain way.
‘We do see it sometimes from some of our ladies in the salon, they want to get some change about themselves.
‘Sometimes it’s because of something they’ve seen on social media, or someone has made a comment to them about the way they look.’
Kelly claims that the business – which opened in 2018 – is the area’s only vegan salon.
She added: ‘We were asked by the Animal Justice Project to become ambassador to them.
‘It’s an organisation we support wholeheartedly.
‘They work to raise issues around animal cruelty. We don’t have any products that have been tested on animals at all.’
The salon is also about to open a training academy which will also follow the vegan ethos.
MORE: 70% of new mums experience mental health problems during or after pregnancy
MORE: Asda vegan Easter egg and M&S white chocolate crowned the best of 2020 in blind taste test
source https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/18/hairdresser-removes-mirrors-salon-boost-self-esteem-clients-12260613/
0 Comments