Beyond the second knuckle

Category: Body

  • Two hearts are better than one. 

    Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

    “ The strength of the team is each individual member, the strength of each member is the team.”

    – Phil Jackson. Legendary U.S. Basketball Coach.

    Success has always had the habit of hiding its best work in the shadows. We celebrate the “overnight success” that took twenty years to build blissfully aware of the toil behind the scenes of joy. We admire the finished article or performance while rarely seeing or acknowledging the hours, days and years of quiet work that made it possible. As Muhammad Ali said “ the fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses…”

    Our bodies are no different. Some of the hardest working parts of the human body go unnoticed until something goes wrong. None more so than our calves, often called the body’s second heart.

    Why Your Calves Matter.

    Most people think of the calves as the muscles that help us walk or run. In reality they’re working every minute we’re on the salon floor. Whether you’re stepping around the chair, leaning into a fade, colouring hair, reaching across a client or simply standing waiting for your next appointment , your calves are making thousands of tiny adjustments to keep you balanced and upright. Your calves are actually made up of two muscles working together ,the larger gastrocnemius and the deeper soleus ,connected to your heel through the Achilles tendon. These partners spend hours helping us maintain posture while standing.

    The Body’s Second Heart.

    Every time our calves contract they help squeeze blood back towards the heart by compressing the deep veins in the lower leg. this is often called the calf muscle pump. It helps to prevent backflow and reduces the workload on the heart. This led to them being called “ The Second Heart” . Walking, climbing stairs and regular movement activate this system. Standing still behind a chair for long periods does not, which can be a contributing factor to that heavy legged feeling, swollen ankles or tired feet at the end of a long hard day in the salon. 

    Photo by Gavin Allanwood on Unsplash

    The Hidden Cost of Standing All Day.

    Standing and moving are not the same thing. We often work within a surprisingly small area around the chair. The first time I wore a fitness tracker I smugly thought I would SMASH the World step record. 10,000 steps? Easy. Imagine my surprise and shock when I found I had clocked less then 4,000 steps. Over time, this lack of movement and prolonged standing may contribute to tight calves, reduced ankle mobility, aching feet, Achilles irritation, heavy or swollen legs and increased pressure in the veins that may contribute to varicose veins or blood clots in people who are already predisposed.

    Looking After Your ‘Second Hearts’.

    There’s no magic bullet or exercise, but small changes and habits can make a big difference : a small walk between clients if possible, change your stance, a few calf raises behind the chair between clients, stretch at the end of the day, strengthen your calves as part of your regular training and good footwear will go a long way.

    I’ve spent over 30 years behind a Barbers chair. Looking after your body doesn’t require perfection, it doesn’t require complicated routines and it’s not even about aesthetic’s. More often, it’s about paying attention to the quiet workers that support you every day.

    The people in your chair may never notice your calves, and that’s fine, but if you look after them they will quietly and efficiently carry you through another busy week behind the chair. Success isn’t only built by the work everyone sees. Sometimes it’s built by the parts nobody notices, including the two muscles that quietly carry you through every day behind the chair.

    Photo by Adam Winger on Unsplash

    Look after your second hearts, and they’ll spend a lifetime looking after you.

  • The Body Takes the Shape of the Work We Do

    “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.” — Samuel Johnson

    A man walks into a Gym and the Coach tells him:

    “You walk like you’re drunk.”

    No, it’s not the start of a terrible Dad Joke, it’s a comment that one of the best coaches I had ever worked with made to me.

    He told me to face the mirror and look. It was literally staring me in the face but I had never noticed. I mentioned it to friends and family who casually confirmed it. It turns out I was the only one not in on this secret.

    Three decades of cutting hair had shaped my body the way centuries of water had carved out the Grand Canyon. Slowly, incrementally, imperceptibly. My left shoulder was higher than my right. My hips were twisted slightly and my pelvis was tilted.

    How had I missed this? What other skeletons were in my closet that had slipped by?

    So I started paying attention.

    And once I did, I began to see things I had never really considered before.

    My weight didn’t sit evenly through both feet. It tended to drift to my right side. My right hip sat slightly differently to my left. Even the way I moved around felt a little off balance.

    None of it had happened suddenly. And none of it caused immediate pain.

    It was simply the result of something much quieter.

    Thirty-four years behind a barber’s chair.

    What repetition looks like in real life

    Most people don’t think of barbering as physically repetitive in a way that shapes the body.

    But when you break a day down, it is.

    We lean into cuts.

    We reach across the chair.

    We step around the same space hundreds of times.

    We shift our weight to see a better angle.

    We turn in the same directions over and over again.

    Individually, none of those movements mean much.

    But repeated thousands of times a year, for decades, they begin to add up.

    And the body doesn’t ignore repetition.

    It adapts to it.

    Not because it’s failing, but because it’s efficient.

    Photo by Richard Stachmann on Unsplash

    Becoming aware of what you’ve always done

    What surprised me most wasn’t what I noticed about my stance.

    It was the fact that I had never noticed it before.

    Once I became aware of how I stood, I started noticing other things too.

    How I loaded one leg more than the other without thinking about it.

    How my hip would naturally rotate into a familiar position when I was working.

    How my weight shifted across my feet depending on where I was in the shop.

    And how all of that seemed to influence the way my knees and ankles were working beneath it.

    None of this came from a formal assessment or a structured plan.

    It came from simply paying attention.

    Photo by Buddha Elemental 3D on Unsplash

    Everything is connected

    One of the things barbering teaches you, if you pay attention long enough, is that nothing really works in isolation.

    How you stand affects how you move.

    How you move affects how you distribute weight.

    How you distribute weight affects how your joints behave.

    Not in a dramatic or immediate way.

    But gradually.

    Quietly.

    Over years.

    That doesn’t mean every ache or imbalance has a simple cause. The body is far more complex than that.

    But it does mean that small, repeated habits are never neutral.

    Photo by Hari Perisetla on Unsplash

    The shift that changed things for me

    I didn’t try to fix anything after that conversation.

    I didn’t start a new routine or go looking for exercises.

    What changed first was awareness.

    I started noticing how I moved around the chair.

    Whether I was always stepping in the same direction.

    Whether I was leaning when I didn’t need to.

    Whether I was adapting my body to the position of the client instead of adjusting the client’s position to suit me.

    That was the shift.

    Not correction.

    Just awareness.

    Moving with a bit more intention

    Over time, that awareness changed how I worked.

    I walk around the chair a bit more now instead of always reaching.

    I change my stance more often during the day.

    I notice when I’ve been loading the same leg for too long.

    I reset my position between clients without thinking too much about it.

    None of it is dramatic.

    Most clients wouldn’t notice any difference at all.

    But I notice it.

    And more importantly, my body notices it by the end of a long week.

    A career built on repetitions

    As barbers and hairdressers, we often measure progress in skill.

    Better fades.

    Cleaner lines.

    Faster work.

    More confidence.

    But while we’re improving our craft, our bodies are also learning something.

    They’re learning from repetition too.

    Every working day is quietly teaching them how to move, how to stand, and how to load weight.

    The question is not whether the body is learning.

    It is.

    The question is what it is learning.

    Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

    You can’t change what you don’t notice

    For me, the biggest lesson wasn’t about posture or symmetry.

    It was about attention.

    Because nothing really changed until I saw it.

    And once I saw it, I couldn’t completely unsee it.

    That awareness didn’t solve everything.

    But it changed how I work.

    And sometimes that’s enough.

    Not perfection.

    Just a bit more intention in how you move through the day behind the chair.

  • The Hand Is the Tool of Tools: Why Barbers Should Care for Their Hands

    The Hand Is the Tool of Tools: Why Barbers Should Care for Their Hands

    “The hand is the tool of tools.”
    — Aristotle

    Spoiler alert — this post begins with a spoiler, but it’s worth it.

    In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker, after having a robotic hand attached to replace the one he lost to a lightsaber blow, looks at his new hand with something approaching amazement. The fingers move exactly as his own once did. The medical droid jabs the tips and he recoils instinctively.


    The way Luke studies this new hand is interesting. I wonder, did he ever give as much thought or consideration to his hands before? Have you? Have any of us? Or is it only when something goes wrong that we suddenly realise how important our hands really are?


    Our hands are the physical connection to our craft. Like the transmission in a car, without it, all the power in the engine is redundant. Likewise, without our hands, the images in our heads and the wishes of our clients simply disappear into the ether.

    We move our hands, wrists, and fingers hundreds, possibly thousands, of times every day. Even more so in our profession. And yet, when you actually look at the range of movements we use, it’s surprisingly limited.

    Take using scissors as an example. The thumb does most of the work; the fingers are the supporting cast. Holding the clippers, the hairdryer, the brushes, all require some form of gripping.

    Our hands spend most of the day flexing and closing. The palm side, the flexor side, is doing the majority of the work. It happens almost without us realising, quietly increasing the potential for imbalance, stiffness, and injury over time.

    Ask yourself this: when was the last time you fully extended your fingers and hand? When did you last give it the old jazz hands? There’s something deeply satisfying about splaying your fingers out as wide as you can, an almost exquisite sensation.

    Try it now. Spread them as wide and as far as you can. How does it feel? Good, right? Now imagine doing that after a long day of chopping and blow-drying. It’s magical.

    Another fantastic, simple stretch I love, and one that can easily be done between clients, is what I call the prayer hand stretch.

    Bring your hands together as if you’re praying for something. Keep the fingers touching, then slowly separate the palms while keeping those fingers glued together. Hold it there and wait for the inevitable relief.

    I love movements like this because they’re easy, quick, and genuinely effective. So much bang for your buck. They flip the script, reintroducing movements that may have been neglected, or quietly forgotten, over time.

    Caring for our hands isn’t about adding another chore to an already busy day. It’s about professionalism. It’s about respect, for our craft, for our clients, and for ourselves. We spend years refining our eye, our technique, our taste. It makes sense to give the same consideration to the tools that allow all of that to exist in the first place.

    These small moments of movement aren’t indulgent. They’re maintenance. Quiet acts of pride that say, this work matters, and I plan on doing it well for a long time.

    Which brings me back to Luke Skywalker.

    That moment where he turns his new hand over, flexes the fingers, and really looks at it, that awareness feels familiar. Most of us don’t think about our hands when everything is working. We only notice them when something hurts, stiffens, or fails.

    The trick is not to wait for the lightsaber moment.

    If we can learn to pay attention earlier, to move, extend, and care for our hands while they’re still healthy, we don’t just protect our livelihood. We honour it.

  • 5 ways to beat the salon burnout

    5 ways to beat the salon burnout

    Burnout in the salon doesn’t usually arrive all at once. It creeps in quietly. One day you notice you’re more tired than usual, a bit shorter with clients, or counting the hours until closing time. The work you once enjoyed starts to feel repetitive, your body feels heavy, and even your days off don’t quite recharge you. I’ve been there more than once.

    These aren’t miracle cures, but they’re five simple things that have helped me step back, reset, and find some balance again when salon life starts to wear me down.

    1. Get Outside and Into Nature

    I find being outside is almost the perfect antidote to the sometimes intense environment of the salon. The stillness, natural light, and fresh air are in complete contrast to the busyness, noise, and stuffiness of a bustling shop.

    If I can, I try to get off the bus or train a stop or two earlier, take a short walk at lunchtime, or head out after dinner in the evening—whatever suits my schedule that day. Ideally, I like to get it in before work. I’ve found it clears my head and sets me up far better for the day ahead.

    2. Read

    I’ve always loved reading. Books were a constant in the house I grew up in (a library room is still one of my dreams).

    That strange, bittersweet feeling of wanting to finish a book to see what happens, while also not wanting it to end because you’re enjoying it so much, never really goes away.

    Books have an incredible power to transport you to different times and places—or even let you be someone else for a while. The world outside drifts by, problems fade into the background, and your mind gets a proper break. For me, it’s the perfect disconnection, and it often leads to great conversations with clients later on. A win-win in my book.

    3. Activities or Hobbies

    Nothing focuses the mind quite like trying not to belly flop from a 7-metre diving platform—believe me. Or trying not to step on your partner’s toes at a salsa class, so I’m told.

    When you’re doing activities or hobbies like these, it’s almost impossible to think about anything other than the task at hand. You’re in completely different surroundings, with people from different backgrounds and jobs, and the repetitive nature of the salon floor is left far behind.

    Whether I’ve had a good, bad, or indifferent day behind the chair, the headspace this kind of activity gives me is invaluable—not to mention the endorphins and the chance to build new friendships.

    4. Gratitude / Journaling

    Firstly, an admission. A few years ago, at the mere mention of gratitude, I would have laughed and scoffed. It was “woo-woo” nonsense as far as I was concerned.

    Fast forward to now, and I see it very differently. It’s not, and never will be, a silver bullet—but it is a powerful and effective tool. I still have rough days, but practising gratitude helps me realise that maybe it wasn’t a bad day after all. Perhaps there were one or two speed bumps, but most of those 24 hours were actually pretty good.

    Seeing more wins than losses helps put things back into perspective.

    5. Break the Routine with Something to Look Forward To

    “How has that week flown by?” “Where has the year gone?” How often have you said something like that? I know I have—more times than I can count.

    When we settle into routine, the brain learns to systemise it to save energy. Can you remember the first haircut you ever did on autopilot? Or the details of your commute home from the salon yesterday? Unless something unusual happened, probably not. Routine becomes habit. Habit becomes forgotten.

    For the last few years, I’ve tried to break my weeks, months, and years into a series of mini adventures: a city break, a hike, a concert, even a simple lunch with a friend or loved one. It breaks the monotony, disrupts the rhythm, and creates experiences to remember. Instead of wishing time away, it’s helped me stay more present—both inside and outside the shop.

    Burnout doesn’t mean you’re in the wrong job, and it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. More often than not, it’s just a sign that something needs adjusting. None of these are big, dramatic changes, and they don’t need to be done perfectly or all at once. They’re small ways of stepping outside the rhythm of the shop, creating a bit of space, and reminding yourself that there’s a full life happening beyond the chair. The salon will always be busy. The days will always be full. Looking after your head and your energy is what makes the work sustainable—for the long run.

  • Happy Feet

    Happy Feet

    “When your feet hurt, everything hurts.”
    — Attributed to Socrates

    A few years ago I spent eighteen months dealing with incredibly painful plantar fasciitis. If you’ve had it, you won’t need reminding. If you haven’t, and I sincerely hope you never do, imagine standing on a demonic mix of broken glass, razor blades, and the occasional hot poker for good measure. It became a constant, debilitating companion — like the devil on your shoulder in cartoons, but without the angel on the other side.

    That devil had a particular sense of humour. Each morning he’d wait patiently under my bed and drive a flaming trident into the soles of my feet the moment I stood up. The pain was always there — a dull, relentless presence — punctuated by sharp reminders just to keep me alert. I stood behind the chair most days trying to distribute my weight in the least painful way possible. Occasionally a client would notice me limping or comment that I didn’t seem myself. They were right. I wasn’t myself. I was fifty percent me and fifty percent plantar fasciitis. It affected me, my haircuts, my customers, and ultimately my business.

    The foot is an incredible feat of engineering — pun fully intended. Twenty-six bones, thirty-three joints, nineteen muscles, hundreds of tendons, and more nerve endings per square centimetre than any other part of the body. It’s our primary point of contact with the ground and feeds vital information to the brain about balance, posture, and movement. And yet, we give it almost no attention at all unless it hurts.

    Think about how good it feels to kick off your shoes at the end of a long day, or how often you tell colleagues you can’t wait to get home and put your feet up.

    Relief is usually our only interaction with them. But rarely do we consider how the way our feet meet the floor affects everything above them — knees, hips, back, shoulders, even the head.

    Subtle changes — and I really do mean subtle — in how weight is distributed through the feet can create significant domino effects throughout the body. A gradual loss of toe mobility, something most of us never notice, can change how the foot moves. That alters our gait, which ripples up one side of the body and often down into the opposite foot. Because these adaptations happen slowly, we usually remain blissfully unaware until pain or discomfort forces the issue.

    Standing behind a chair for eight or nine hours a day, six days a week, doesn’t leave much margin for error.

    The feet aren’t just something we stand on — they are the foundation everything else is built upon.

    When that foundation starts to crack, the rest of the structure feels it. My experience with plantar fasciitis forced me to pay attention, to slow down, and to rethink something I’d taken for granted for decades.

    This isn’t about becoming obsessive or chasing perfection. It’s about awareness. About respecting the body parts that quietly do the most work and ask for the least credit. If this piece does nothing more than encourage you to notice your feet — how they feel, how they move, how they support you — then it’s done its job. Sometimes longevity in this craft starts from the ground up.

  • Top 5 Reasons to Get Fit for the Salon

    Top 5 Reasons to Get Fit for the Salon

    “Everything works when we do.” — Maya Angelou

    Picture two scenes.

    It’s been a busy week. A full book. Back-to-back appointments. A couple of skipped lunch breaks. It’s Saturday evening, and you’re due to head out for a friend’s birthday.

    Scenario one:

    You’re exhausted. Your lower back aches, your shoulders are tight, and that yoga class or gym session has been pushed down the road again. If you’re honest with yourself, you haven’t been following the same advice you regularly give to clients about looking after themselves.

    You go to the party. It’s enjoyable, but the tiredness and the nagging pain take the edge off. Before long, you make your excuses and head home early.

    Scenario two:

    You’re still tired—but it’s a different kind of tired. The good kind. The kind that comes from effort and fulfilment. You’ve been consistent with your training. You feel strong, mobile, and capable. Your diet has been mostly on point.

    It’s been a busy week, but your body has taken it in stride. You walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

    Your clients notice it. Your friends notice it too, as you bring real energy to the party that night.

    Your number one tool as a barber or hairstylist isn’t your scissors, clippers, or comb.

    It’s your body.

    If you don’t work well, no tool ever will.

    Looking after your health and fitness isn’t a luxury in this industry—it’s a necessity. Strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular fitness are the foundations that support long days behind the chair. They’re what give you enough energy left in the tank to enjoy life outside the shop.

    Fitness is often portrayed as purely aesthetic—how someone looks. But real fitness is about capacity.

    It’s about being able to do what you need to do, when you need to do it, and still have something in reserve when life throws a curveball.

    For barbers and hairstylists, fitness isn’t optional. It’s a tool for career longevity.

    1. Cardiovascular Fitness

    Oxygen is the most essential element for human life. Skip a meal—you’ll survive. Go a bit thirsty—you’ll manage. Run out of oxygen? Good luck. Cardiovascular fitness supports long days on your feet and slows the buildup of fatigue.

    2. Strength

    In the salon, strength shows up as strength endurance—the ability to exert force repeatedly over long periods. Improved strength leads to more efficient movement and less wasted energy throughout the day.

    3. Flexibility

    When a joint can’t move properly, another must compensate. Over time, this increases strain and injury risk. Given the thousands of repetitive movements behind the chair, flexibility is protective, not optional.

    4. Mental Health

    Movement releases chemicals that improve mood and reduce stress. After decades in the barbershop, I’ve learned that no matter the day, I always feel better after moving my body.

    5. Confidence

    Confidence is built through small victories. Each workout or walk is a vote for the person you want to become. That confidence shows up in how you work, how you stand, and how others experience you.

    Fitness can be a powerful tool for taking your craft—and your career—to the next level. With consistent effort, the benefits add up quickly and are noticed by others.

    Beyond the Second Knuckle exists to explore what it really takes to build a sustainable, fulfilling life in the trade.

    Fitness and mobility are a big part of that, but they’re not the whole picture. This is a space for sharing experience, asking better questions, and learning the things that don’t get taught early on—so the work can support your life, rather than slowly shrinking it.