Home

Hair & Beauty Professionals Against Domestic Abuse

1 in 4 women will experience abuse from a partner or ex-partner at some time in their life and 2 are killed each week. They may be our clients, colleagues – even family and friends.

Seeing the signs, offering a kind word and providing information on how to access professional support may change or save someone’s life.

Behind the Mask offers hair and beauty professionals’ like you, free access to online learning and resources. This may help you to spot the signs that someone is experiencing domestic abuse and guide on how to respond in the best way. It’s not about intervening or interfering, but knowing how you can truly help someone who may really need it.

What is domestic abuse?

The definition is broad and there are many variations of it.

Abuse may be psychological or emotional, physical, sexual, harassing, coercive or controlling behaviours. It may be one or many incidents. The domestic aspect is about that abuse having been caused by a partner, ex-partner or relative.

Using the term ‘Domestic Violence’ is less used now, as this implies that the harm is physical alone and seemingly excludes the broader range of abusive behaviours.

How would I know that someone may need help?

It’s not easy to spot given that abuse may be more than a physical injury or injuries that may or may not be visible. With some insight, our unique relationships with clients or colleagues may reveal what’s hidden behind their mask.

Why should I get involved?

Most women see a hairdresser and use the services of a beautician. Many clients go back to the same professional because of their great service, treatments and their loyal relationship. We are renowned for being experienced listeners and it’s no surprise that many people feel comfortable talking and confiding in us about things that they would never tell anyone else. We often feel like counsellors as people unburden themselves during their treatments though most of us are not professionally trained in this field! We’re being empathetic. We’re being human.

Our relationship puts us in a unique position to be able to notice signs of abuse and offer help. It may be the only opportunity someone has to be on their own whilst they are in our space where they may feel safe. We can give them a chance to reach out for help or we can suggest where help can be found, when they feel ready for it.

We are really well positioned to sensitively and safely refer clients or colleagues – even family or friends – to resources that are best placed to help them. It’s as simple as that and you can help to change or save someone’s life.

We know that there are some hair and beauty salons already doing this in the UK. This is fantastic and we want to build on this great practice that already exists in some areas.

I want to help. What can I do?

Therapists and Salon Owners

  • Take our awareness training. It asks for 22 minutes of your time every 2 years.
  • Become a champion. As a champion, you can get a little or a lot more involved by being proactive and telling others about this free and simple training opportunity. Learn More

Hair and Beauty Trainers and Training Academies

Follow us on social media for the latest updates

www.instagram.com/behindthemaskonline

www.facebook.com/behindthemaskonline

Come and be a part of something amazing

About

About

Behind the Mask was founded by Julie Knight, a Lash Stylist and Trainer based in the U.K.

Julie has both personal and professional insight into Domestic Abuse and is passionate about helping and empowering others to help in any way they can.

JulieKnight

Introducing our new Deputy Campaign Manager Shannon-Bethan

Shannon has selflessly devoted half of her working life to maintaining and improving Behind the Mask. She has been issuing certificates and support packs, responding to the thousands of messages received on a daily basis and in April 2020, completing the automation of the service where certificates are issued automatically on completion of the course.

Shannon has survived Domestic Abuse following 2 toxic relationships. She’s on her journey to recovery. She’s passionate about helping others to help others in any way they can.

ShannonBW1

Introducing Antony Knight

As a Web Designer, Antony gifted his time to create our website and continues to maintain it. He helped Julie to format and launch the training videos that took several days to finesse.

Julie would like to extend a special thanks to Ria-Jaine Lincoln who became the first Behind The Mask Champion. Ria has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of this FREE training course in so many different ways and is a truly amazing and inspirational person. Thank you Ria-Jaine ♥

Behind The Mask Training Schools

Coming soon

News

News

As featured online at  Virtual Hair and Beauty Show November 2020

As featured on BBC Radio Leicester 23rd August 2020

As featured on BBC East Midlands 18th August 2020

As featured on BBC Radio Sussex 16th August 2020

As featured on BBC Radio Nottingham 31st July 2020

As featured on BBC Radio Leicester 17th June 2020

As featured on Merlin Lash and Beauty Educational Instagram Live Series May 2020

As featured on Tech Talk Live with Amy Masters March 2020

As featured in Scratch Magazine April 2020

As featured live online at The Creative Beauty Group Support Forum March 2020

As featured online at Artistic Lash League conference March 2020

As featured live online at Lash Master Evolution March 2020

As featured live at Events by Always Bonita Beauty March 2020

As featured live at Safer Lincolnshire Partnership February 2020

As featured in Scratch Magazine December 2019

As featured in Lash~Ed Magazine October 2019

As featured on BBC Points West 6th August 2019

As featured on BBC Radio Bristol 6th August 2019

As featured on the live stage at World Lash University Event May 2019

As featured on The Carl Reader Show Podcast April 2019

As featured in Lash~Ed Magazine Special Edition April 2019

As featured on Lash Boss Radio (Episode 33) March 2019

As featured on Life Of KG Podcast (Episode 5) February 2019

As featured in Scratch Magazine December 2018

As featured in Lash~Ed Magazine October 2018

As featured on the live stage at Professional Beauty North October 2018

As featured in Lash~Ed Magazine June 2018

As featured in Salon News May 2018

As featured in Lash~Ed Magazine April 2018

As featured in Professional Beauty April 2018

Training

Welcome to your training

This training is designed to help hair and beauty professionals to spot the signs that someone is experiencing domestic abuse and how to respond in the best way. We invite everyone to take the training again within 2 years to stay fresh and we will be keeping the training information up to date. It will always be free.

If you would like to take the training, please create an account so that you can claim your certificate of participation. Please Note: If you would like your certificate to display your name, please fill in the First and Last name boxes available. If you would like your salon, company or training school name on the certificate, please leave First and Last name blank and enter the name you would like into the ‘Display Name Publicly As’ box. If you need to edit your account you can do so here: edit your profile.

Click here to create an account

The training takes around 22 minutes to complete and consists of three videos for you to watch, voiced over by our lovely Julie.

We highly recommend taking the course on a computer as not all mobile devices can view the certificates.

There are three options for you to choose below. The training utilises the same videos, but there are different certificates awarded for each. If you are unsure about the difference between a Participant and a Champion please take a look at our Champion page here.

Behind The Mask Participant Training

Behind The Mask Training – To Become A Champion

The training school option is provided for if you run a training school and want to include it in your courses. There is a training school support book, E-badge and sample press release available for you to download.

Behind The Mask – For Training Schools

Behind the Mask would like to thank many people for their help and support in making this happen. These include Ria-Jaine Lincoln who has been a fantastic champion and advocate, Ruth Mason from Women’s Aid, Dr Alison Gregory from the University of Bristol together with Bristol City Council and Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner for their work on THIS IS NOT AN EXCUSE, Tabatha Breame from Norfolk Domestic Abuse Change Coordinator NCCSP and to the amazing strength of those who have or are experiencing domestic abuse and have offered their views and support. Behind the Mask would also like to thank the hair and beauty for their support and enthusiasm of those who have embraced this. We know that together, we can change or save a life.  Thank you

https://www.thisisnotanexcuse.org/domestic-abuse/

Contact

Contact Us

Before contacting us with any questions, see our FAQ page as your question may be answered there.

Please note. If you cannot open your certificate, please make sure that Adobe Acrobat Reader is installed on your device and it’s up to date. This is the main reason for this issue.

If you’re having problems trying to print your certificate, please make sure that you download and open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you’re still having problems, please contact us and let us know what device and what browser you are using to access the site so we can best help you.

Please be aware that if you have a Huawei phone, you may have problems downloading/viewing your pdf certificate. Huawei are aware of the problem. Here’s a link to the Huawei forum where Huawei acknowledge the problem on the 25/5/20

We will respond as soon as we can but please be patient with us as we run this training programme in our own time and at our own expense.

Contact us: