Oh sorry did you think I was someone who wouldn't talk politics at work
I gotta say it's wild being in a comparatively nationally insignificant place during a major election for the first time in my adult life. Maine is very significant, like, spiritually etc but you know what I mean, I've otherwise only lived in NYC and LA where even the dang city council elections make national news. Virtually no one who comes through the salon has their head in the sand, but it's noteworthy that apart from a through-gritted-teeth acknowledgement of impending doom fear, we mostly talk about gardening and home-improvement projects and whatever sweet dumb little life stuff. It's a relief because I know beyond a doubt from experience that if I was back in NYC 90% of what clients would bring up would be the worst most contentious or scary latest news thing. Very rarely did we disagree, but on the few occasions that we did, boy howdy...
Some of you my darling readers (plus my mom) may feel that openly discussing politics in the workplace ought to be avoided, but I think what's at stake is too profound to adhere to those old polite society guidelines. Plus my salon's rainbow curtains serve both to softly filter the light and overt bigotry.
My general rule is I'm not the one who's going to bring it up, but if a client does then all bets are off. Or, most bets are off. I'll absolutely meet a client's level of engagement while unfortunately breaking out in visible neck hives, but I won't mess up their hair. I can handle losing a client due to irreconcilable political conflict, in fact I'd probably prefer it! Bye!! (There was a disconcerting number of beauty professionals at the insurrection, so like I've said before there's a stylist for everybody!) But my work will be unimpeachable, and there's no shortage of clients who don't have the worst opinions about humanity. To the baddies, in my late Bubbie Shirley's condescending and dismissive Brooklyn equivalent of a Southern, "bless your heart," I say, "you should live and be well." Isn't that so good!? You can use that.
I've never - and could never - purposely ruin a client's hair because they were being heinous (I've been asked countless times if I've ever done that, which says more about how y'all might wield the power of shears and chemicals actually), but there was one time at the height of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2016 when a client was in my chair LOUDLY and PROUDLY popping off about how we can't take any of them into our country because they're all terrorists. She went on and on and on first while I was doing her color and highlights, and then as I was doing my usual spectacular blowdry, so we're talking about a good couple hours of this xenophobic rant to the point where I finally said, "I'm really uncomfortable with what you're saying, can you stop please?" You have to know how much it took for me to be that blunt with a client, but I suppose it's a testament to her fierce commitment to racism that she continued undeterred, as did I silently stewing while making her hair look undeservedly stunning. She did at one point interrupt herself to say, "you're kind of pulling my hair a little bit." Oops!
Share in the comments if you've had fraught workplace experiences that tested the limits of your capacity to engage without jeopardizing your livelihood, doesn't that sound like a fun topic!?
For emotional balance between now and the election and whatever fallout follows, I recommend the latest season of Love Is Blind (we're a few episodes into it and one guy proposes to a woman through the opaque glass separating them with the words, "I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with your beautiful ass") and as ever you can't go wrong with any variety of Below Deck. For non-reality people (I'll bring you around eventually) watch Shrinking on Apple+, Girls5Eva on Netflix, and Reservation Dogs on Hulu. The documentary Will and Harper is funny and gorgeous and poignant and I can't recommend it highly enough. If it won't send you into a PTSD spiral listen to the latest season of the podcast Slow Burn that's about the rise of Fox News. Chase that with Ruined! which entertainingly synopsizes a horror film every week.
I have a couple good advice questions in the pipeline, but I need mooooooooore:
Submit advice questions here https://www.carolinemitgang.com/about or to my Instagram DMs @hair_o_line.
Go vote, love, Caroline