Mental health course for beauty & hair launches

Tom Chapman, the barber behind the award-winning mental health training scheme, BarberTalk, is set to launch the programme into the beauty and hair sectors.

Tom, founder of The Lions Barber Collective, has adapted the BarberTalk four pillar model mental health training into Hair&BeautyTalk, which will be available nationwide in person, (when Covid restrictions are lifted) and online.

BarberTalk has already trained over 2,000 hair professionals to be able to recognise the signs someone may be struggling, ask questions that give those in need the permission and opportunity to be able to talk in a safe environment, and signpost clients to the right help. This training is designed not to diagnose, advise or prescribe to those suffering but to offer a safe, non-judgemental environment.

Commenting on the launch of Hair&BeautyTalk, Tom Chapman, founder of The Lions Barber Collective and BarberTalk, says:

“This was obviously the next step for us, to open the informative, enjoyable and most importantly easily useable training to the hair and beauty industry. As a member of the advisor board for the British Beauty Council and starting my career in hairdressing at Toni&Guy I am aware that all the hair & beauty industry has this relationship of trust and intimacy with their clients, as well as regular visits which puts us in the perfect space to be able to recognise if someone is struggling.

“In this industry we have long standing relationships with people and there for all the highs and lows of those in our chairs. We are there for the first dates, the engagements, the weddings, christenings, new jobs etc, but we are also there for the redundancies, divorces, funerals and break ups. Whether we like it or not we have these conversations, I want to prepare the industry for these situations, they can be a matter of life and death.”

Tom is also working on a Mental Health PT session which will expand the key steps to mental wellbeing and help provide knowledge of what we can do to keep ourselves mentally fit.