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Fat Mascara

The Hair & Mental Health Connection with Dr. Afiya Mbilishaka

Fat Mascara

Fat Mascara LLC

Dermatology, Fashion & Beauty, Arts, Beauty News, Makeup, Skincare, Perfume, Fragrance

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Psychologist, hair stylist, hair historian, and clinical therapist Afiya Mbilishaka, PhD, is here to talk about why hair (and caring for it) can be an entry point to mental-health services. She explains why hair is sacred in many cultures around the world, especially in some of the African cultures she’s studied. Plus: why hair loss can be so devastating; the importance of hair stylists in Black communities; how to have a better relationship with your stylist—and what’s really going on when someone gets breakup bangs. She also tells us about plans to expand her work thanks to a grant from Maui Moisture.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Okay, everyone. It's Friday, Fatma Scarra interview day. I'm Jess. I'm Jen. Hi. Welcome to Fatma Scarra.

0:13.9

Oh, we have a good interview for you. So, Jen, who'd you talk to? I, P.S. Jess will be, you have

0:22.1

an interview coming up to a solo one. I am so excited. It's time to time. Yeah, but I got to

0:27.4

connect with Dr. Afea and Belishaka. Let me tell you what a force she is, what a cool combination

0:34.4

of studies she has. I'm like, all right. I mean, I'm, I'm getting too excited about it.

0:40.0

I lost your mind with a study of who the woman is and what she does. I kind of did. I kind of did.

0:43.6

It was like all of Jen's worlds colliding into one interview. I was very excited. She's a therapist,

0:48.4

consultant, research scientist, speaker, hair historian, and hair stylist with a private clinical

0:54.7

practice as a therapist. She's actually also a hair stylist and has a hair styling practice.

0:59.3

That's on pause right now. She'll, she'll explain. She's a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania,

1:04.0

has a PhD in clinical psychology from Howard University. Wait, another, you pen graduate?

1:09.9

Yes, we bonded. We like, oh, I, we didn't quite overlap, but we had some similar, like we had

1:15.5

studied with some of the same people when we were there, which was interesting as well. But

1:20.4

the company she founded is called Psychoherapy. She uses hair as an entry point for mental health

1:26.8

services in beauty salons and barber shops, as well as through social media. As she came to my

1:31.9

attention from Maui Moister, which gave her this big grant, which is amazing to help her with

1:36.2

her research. But in her research, she found that black women are more likely to book a hair

1:39.6

care appointment than a mental health appointment. And so she collected data from hair salons and

1:44.0

barber shops in the Washington, DC area where she used to live to give further evidence to this

1:48.3

relationship between hair and mental health. So she and I are going to dig into that relationship

1:52.8

in what it means, but also talk some hair history and also talk about how to have a healthy

1:58.8

relationship with your hair stylist or barber from your end, not just their end, because we need

...

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