Emotional stylists: Strategies of expressive management among trainee hairdressers

Abstract

This study is concerned with the strategies of expressive control and interaction styles reported by trainee hairdressers. Thirty-nine young women on a Youth Training Scheme (YTS) hairdressing scheme were interviewed about their experiences of dealing with clients and asked to fill out a series of standardised personality questionnaires. Relationships between measures of expressive control, affective communication, self-consciousness, empathy, and affective intensity were investigated, and the influence of these variables on job satisfaction, general well-being, and reported level of tips was assessed using correlational analyses. Ratings of job satisfaction and general well-being were found to be significantly related to low levels of self-monitoring, and more specifically to the absence of a socially deceptive strategy of impression management. Self-ratings of emotional expressive ability and scores on a self-report cognitive/affective index of “open” interaction style together accounted for about half the variance in reported tips. These results are discussed in the context of the discourses of “putting on an act” and “opening up” which frequently arose in conversation with interviewees. Trainees apparently learn to identify with their interpersonal role during encounters with clients and come to experience the associated emotional display as “spontaneous” and “natural”. Successful adjustment to the work-role implies specific strategies of emotional involvement and control.