” Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.”
– Jim Rohn.
” A lunch break? What’s that?” I laughed, as a customer asked me what time I took my lunch at.
My standard reply was to tell them a story from my apprenticeship of my Boss telling myself and another apprentice that he didn’t give us lunch breaks, because it would take him too long to train us back in afterwards.
There was probably more than a grain of truth in his claim to be honest. Once you stopped cutting, swept up, gathered up the towels and gowns, grabbed a quick sandwich and maybe sat down for a few minutes, it could be surprisingly difficult to get momentum back. It turns out Newton’s First Law applies to barbers just as much as it does to physics.
A body at rest tends to stay at rest.
Looking back at it, though, I wonder if that mindset stayed with me long after my apprenticeship ended. Somewhere along the way, skipping lunch became “the way”. Something that happened occasionally eventually became my default setting.
Like the two old sailors in Jaws comparing scars, barbers and hairdressers can end up swapping tales of missed lunches and who went longer without eating. The hours without food, the clients squeezed in back-to-back until the day is over. We almost wear this as a badge of honour.
The problem is, not every tradition we inherit is one we should keep. It can become a habit that quietly chips away at our energy, concentration and, over time, our health.
For years, not eating was just part of the job.
If the shop was busy, I just kept going. Always telling myself “I’ll get something after the next customer”. Before I knew it, the clock was hitting 5 o’clock. And I wondered why I was tired and irritable.
It wasn’t dedication.
It was neglect.
The skipped lunch leads to the energy crash. The coffee and chocolate croissant become the quick fix. For a while, we feel better, and then the cycle starts again
The irony is that diabetes runs in my family and I should have known better. But like many people in our trade, I convinced myself that looking after my clients meant putting myself last.
I’ve come to realise that I had it the wrong way round.
We Ask a Lot of Our Bodies
Barbering and hairdressing are physical jobs.
We’re on our feet for hours. We’re constantly moving our bodies, concentrating on fine detail, making hundreds of small decisions, talking to people all day and trying to give every client the same standard of service.
That takes energy.
Yet somehow, many of us expect our bodies to perform like high-end machines while running on little more than caffeine, sugar and good intentions.
Imagine expecting your car to run without petrol or your clippers to run all day without charging them.
We’d never expect it.
So why do we expect it from ourselves?
The Afternoon Crash
Most of us know exactly when it happens.
Around three or four o’clock, the tiredness creeps in.
Your concentration wanders a little.
You become a little less patient.
Your posture starts to sag.
The packet of biscuits in the staff room suddenly looks like a sensible lunch.
I’ve been there more times than I care to admit.
The problem isn’t just that we feel hungry.
The problem is that we’re asking our brains and bodies to continue producing skilled work without giving them the fuel they need.
The Drink We Forget
Food isn’t the only thing we neglect.
Water is often forgotten about too.
I’ve had days where I’ve been so busy and so caught up in the rhythm of the shop that I’ve looked at the clock late in the afternoon and realised I could barely remember drinking anything at all.
How many times have you finished a busy day and realised your water bottle is still almost full?
Standing all day, talking constantly, working under warm lights and living on coffee can leave us dehydrated without even realising it.
Sometimes that afternoon headache or foggy feeling isn’t because we’ve worked too hard.
Sometimes we’re simply thirsty.
Looking After Yourself Is Looking After Your Clients
This is probably the biggest lesson I’ve learned.
For years, I thought taking five minutes to eat was taking time away from my clients.
Now I see it differently.
When I’ve eaten properly and stayed hydrated, I concentrate better.
I’m more patient.
I make better decisions.
I have more energy.
My last client of the day deserves the same attention as my first.
Looking after myself isn’t something I do instead of looking after my clients.
It’s one of the ways I look after them.
It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect
This isn’t about counting calories or following the latest diet trend.
It’s about building habits that help us feel better and support us during our work.
Maybe that means bringing a sandwich instead of relying on the nearest vending machine.
Maybe it’s keeping a bottle of water beside your station.
Maybe it’s having a banana or a handful of nuts between appointments instead of reaching for another chocolate bar.
Small changes, repeated consistently, usually beat big changes that last a week.
Food Is Part of the Toolkit
We invest in good scissors.
We replace worn-out clippers.
We pay for courses to improve our skills.
But the most important tool in the shop is the one standing behind the chair.
If we want long, healthy careers doing the craft we love, we have to look after that tool too.
Because eating well isn’t about being healthier for the sake of it.
It’s about having the energy to do our best work.
It’s about serving our clients well.
It’s about making sure that twenty years from now we’re still able to enjoy the job that first made us pick up a pair of scissors.
So this week, don’t try to change everything.
Just drink a little more water.
Eat one proper meal during your shift.
Keep one healthier snack within reach.
Because this isn’t really about lunch. It’s about the career we’re building.
We want to be good enough at our craft to keep doing it for years. We want to have the energy to enjoy it, the health to sustain it and the ability to give our clients our best.
So perhaps looking after ourselves isn’t something that comes after the work.
Perhaps it’s part of the work.
