Lots of women have meaningful and personal connections with their hairdressers.
A new campaign to curb domestic violence is looking to take advantage of those relationships by training hair stylists to look for signs of domestic abuse.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein has the story.
Attorney General Kelly Ayotte walks two blocks to the Posh Hair Studio for a cut and color every 4-5 weeks.
TAPE: you know I am pushing 40 so sometimes I get a little gray hair.
When she’s there, Ayotte says she’s a captive audience.
TAPE: and you know for me and my schedule it’s my one hour and a half...it’s a time that I am talking quite a bit with my hairdresser.
After all that time, hair stylists often get to know their customers tastes, but also personal stories.
Concord-based stylist Kathleen Walsh says she had a client who started talking about her disolving marriage.
TAPE: I knew that she was filing a divorce six months before he did....she hadn’t even filed the paperwork yet....she talked to me for that whole six months about what was going on up until she got her own apartment, moved out and then filed.
The Attorney General’s Office along with the New Hampshire Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence are trying to take advantage of those relationships.
Over the next several months, they plan to hold seven seminars around the state to teach stylists to keep an eye out for signs of abuse.
Posh Studio salon owner Melanie Steambergen says she’s not sure if she’s ever had a customer who was a victim of domestic abuse during her 20 year career.
But then again, she admits, she not sure what to look for.
TAPE: this one client was here for over three hours having her hair done. And her boyfriend, husband...was here and sat there while she was getting her hair done...I thought, that guy sat here for 3 hours.
When Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence executive director Grace Mattern hears Steambergen’s story she thinks that could be a woman in trouble.
3:32 ...people think domestic abuse and they think black eyes and strangulation, but....maybe somebody who talks about her partner fearfully, talks about finances controlled, not being allowed to make decisions by herself....or she might ask questions is it like this for you at home?
In New Hampshire one in three women is abused by a partner at some point in her life.
The Attorney General’s Office says about half of the state’s homicides every year are related to domestic violence.
Organizers are excited about the new program because it’s reaching out to people who have real relationships built over time.
But Becky Bates, who owns a hair studio in Newport, says she’s concerned that a lot of stylists won’t want to get involved.
She says people think the only way to help someone is to get deeply involved, maybe even literally driving that victim to a shelter.
And in small communities, it’s dangerous personally and professionally to get too involved.
23:44 a lot of people before they receive any sort of information that this training could provide would think the only way you can solve the situation like this is remove the person from the relationship. And that is hard to do.
But Bates, who lost a family member to domestic violence years ago, says nobody is asking stylists to become crisis center workers.
Hairdressers will be given small, discreet wallet-sized pamphlets that include the National Domestic Violence Hotline to pass out to their clients.
The Coalition against Sexual Violence estimates a handful of the state’s more than 1800 salons will participate initially.
But they say any salon that wants to get training in the future can do so free of charge.
For NHPR News, I’m DG.
