Does anyone get antisocial after doing hair full time?  When I go home I just don't want to talk to anyone--no phone, no neighbors, no socializing.  Thank God I live alone.  All of the jabbering I have to do at work drains me more and more.  I'm even starting to feel like a real phony for pretending to be interested in certain clients.  Of course I have my favorites I've done for years and I enjoy seeing them, but I'm getting so tired of even the nice people.  Somedays I think I will lose my mind.   I don't think there is a solution to this, but I needed to vent.      

Dear doit-

It is normal.  It sounds as if you have been really busy lately or always - with no break insight.  And I feel for you.  Because I too have watched the phone ring in the evening too.  My patience can be shorter also.  Standing on your feet and giving, giving, giving - making sure everyone else is happy can be very draining and sometimes at the end of the day you can be left with the feeling that there is nothing left for yourself because you are exhausted.  What you need to do is find some balance. 

At one point in our careers, all we want to do is work all the time and build out books.  We are so excited - we chat, chat and we start hopefully getting rebookings.  We would work any hours.  Well some of us.  Then it gets to the point that we are raising prices because our skills have been perfected more thru education and our books are more full.  Some of us change our schedules.  Reevaluate where you are now.  You truly can get burned out.  Maybe it is time to take a vacation to rejuvenate your soul.  Mark out those long holiday weekends.  Next weekend is Memorial Day.  I don't work them any more.  If you do a lot of color work - grey coverage touch ups are usally on 40 mins - you don't have to sit there the whole time and chit chat - you can do 2 back to back or 3 - or just go sit.  Clients want to relax.  Treat yourself to a massage.  Take a jacuzzi.  Take care of you so you can take care of others.  And if you don't want to talk to the neighbors then don't :)

PS - at the Salon Store Wynn Claybaugh has some great books (motivational) that address this very issue - I have read them and they have helped me.

Cindy Farr Hester  Asst Modertor

This is a social field. One of the best things about this field. Moms get to interact with adults at work, single people get to interact with the other single people, married people get to relate to married people stories, and all in all going to work is like going to a social club. Better then sitting behind a desk with no interaction in my opinion.

I dress well for work, put my make-up on for work & do my hair which is long to the small of my back. After getting bright eyed and bushy tailed I start my day with high energy, and a positive outlook. At the end of a long day of catering to everyone else's needs last thing I want to do at night is cater to anyone else. It's me time. Bubble bath time, Irish cream time, and exhale time. It's ok to feel that way. We work on our feet with our arms in the air, manipulating conversations all day, using our brains for theory, and our eyes for precision. Your allowed to be tired.

I have 400 gallons of fish tanks in my house, they really relax me, just sitting there watching the fish and listening to the running water is very soothing. I don't think about today, or tomorrow, or yesterday when I am watching the tanks.

Great advice from everyone here, it's clear to see this is a common feeling and we are not alone.

AMirage

I love the fish aquarium idea. Sooooo relaxing. I'm going to set up my 55 gallon in the next month or so. Re-modeling the house right now. But I'm sooo jealous of 400 gallons CJ and Amirage, well maybe not the clean-up.hee-hee.

I hate repeating things while talking to the clients. That usually happens when I'm a bit under the weather and not up to par. I really hate to hear the other stylists stories over & over but know it can't be helped. Sometimes those stations are just too close together or maybe our mouths are too loud.(hee-hee)

Funny because I feel the same way some/most nights after a busy day of talking talking/listening listening.  Anyone else have a boyfriend/girlfriend at home and feel that even conversing with them is too much after a long day? 

Hobbies is a great idea..I'll give it  a go!