Cut and Dry: Psoriasis in the Salon
Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario on October 15, 2021
Video Transcript
TINA IVY: I'm a hairstylist
because I enjoy the art form
of doing color and doing
haircuts.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I can be creative. There's always more to learn, so it never gets boring. And the part of making people beautiful. Sometimes just by doing their hair, makes them feel better about their life. If they come in and they're stressed or they're just not happy with how they look, it's the best feeling in the world to help somebody. When your outer looks good, your inner is going to feel better.
SPEAKER 2: Love you.
TINA IVY: Love you too. Psoriasis started for me probably when I was about 19. It started on my hands.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
That's when I started really doing hair too and my hands were always affected. When the psoriasis gets bad, it covers about 75% of my body. And then it will calm down, and then it will happen again. The places that I have it the worst are on my hands, my feet, and my knees. But now, I have spots all over, underneath my arm. There are a couple on my face now. I've had it in my ears, in my belly button.
A lot of things that work can irritate my skin, like the shampoo or color. Just the water alone can irritate my skin on a daily basis. It's very painful, especially when you have cuts on your hands. So every customer that I do, I'm in pain. When I went to the doctor, the doctor told me I should change careers. But this was going to be my career and I just felt like I would deal with it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
To help with the irritation at work, I wear gloves when I do color, if I shampoo. I'm constantly moisturizing my hands. Other things that I do so I don't have flare-ups is my diet and to eat mainly vegetables. I read, and sleep is very important. I think that some people think that psoriasis is contagious and do not want to touch you or get by you. I do have a lot of customers or people that I know ask me, did I fall down or did I get burned. That's a normal one. I explain it to them, because a lot of people don't know what psoriasis is or anything about it.
SPEAKER 2: How have your hands been feeling?
TINA IVY: It's getting a little bit better. Not too long ago, it was pretty bad. The busier I am, the worse it is for my hands. Hairstylists talk all day long. That's what part of our job is, to talk, and I get to listen to the customers.
SPEAKER 3: Tina's my hairdressing therapist. I get to vent to her things that are going on, you know.
TINA IVY: I think because I'm very open, it opens up for the customer to talk. I've found out that some of my customers have psoriasis and didn't want to talk about it to anybody. I can think of one, and she said, I'm scared to go to the hairdresser because I have psoriasis. Because she goes, I don't know if you want to touch my head. And I said, oh, that's OK, because I have it too, so don't worry about it. I know it's not contagious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My customers have to listen to me all the time and I listen to them, so we're all therapists. I'm helping people understand what psoriasis is. My customers are going to be more aware of when they do meet other people, not just that it's a skin disorder, you're affected emotionally because of it. With psoriasis, you can have a healthy marriage, you can work, you can have a healthy life. And I haven't let psoriasis slow me down at all.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I can be creative. There's always more to learn, so it never gets boring. And the part of making people beautiful. Sometimes just by doing their hair, makes them feel better about their life. If they come in and they're stressed or they're just not happy with how they look, it's the best feeling in the world to help somebody. When your outer looks good, your inner is going to feel better.
SPEAKER 2: Love you.
TINA IVY: Love you too. Psoriasis started for me probably when I was about 19. It started on my hands.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
That's when I started really doing hair too and my hands were always affected. When the psoriasis gets bad, it covers about 75% of my body. And then it will calm down, and then it will happen again. The places that I have it the worst are on my hands, my feet, and my knees. But now, I have spots all over, underneath my arm. There are a couple on my face now. I've had it in my ears, in my belly button.
A lot of things that work can irritate my skin, like the shampoo or color. Just the water alone can irritate my skin on a daily basis. It's very painful, especially when you have cuts on your hands. So every customer that I do, I'm in pain. When I went to the doctor, the doctor told me I should change careers. But this was going to be my career and I just felt like I would deal with it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
To help with the irritation at work, I wear gloves when I do color, if I shampoo. I'm constantly moisturizing my hands. Other things that I do so I don't have flare-ups is my diet and to eat mainly vegetables. I read, and sleep is very important. I think that some people think that psoriasis is contagious and do not want to touch you or get by you. I do have a lot of customers or people that I know ask me, did I fall down or did I get burned. That's a normal one. I explain it to them, because a lot of people don't know what psoriasis is or anything about it.
SPEAKER 2: How have your hands been feeling?
TINA IVY: It's getting a little bit better. Not too long ago, it was pretty bad. The busier I am, the worse it is for my hands. Hairstylists talk all day long. That's what part of our job is, to talk, and I get to listen to the customers.
SPEAKER 3: Tina's my hairdressing therapist. I get to vent to her things that are going on, you know.
TINA IVY: I think because I'm very open, it opens up for the customer to talk. I've found out that some of my customers have psoriasis and didn't want to talk about it to anybody. I can think of one, and she said, I'm scared to go to the hairdresser because I have psoriasis. Because she goes, I don't know if you want to touch my head. And I said, oh, that's OK, because I have it too, so don't worry about it. I know it's not contagious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
My customers have to listen to me all the time and I listen to them, so we're all therapists. I'm helping people understand what psoriasis is. My customers are going to be more aware of when they do meet other people, not just that it's a skin disorder, you're affected emotionally because of it. With psoriasis, you can have a healthy marriage, you can work, you can have a healthy life. And I haven't let psoriasis slow me down at all.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
