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Two women, virtual strangers, sit hand-in-hand across a narrow table, both intent on the same thing-achieving the perfect manicure. Encounters like this occur thousands of times across the United States in nail salons increasingly owned and operated by Asian immigrants. This study looks closely for the first time at these intimate encounters, focusing on New York City, where such nail salons have become ubiquitous. Drawing from rich and compelling interviews, Miliann Kang takes us inside the nail industry, asking such questions as: Why have nail salons become so popular? Why do so many Asian women, and Korean women in particular, provide these services? Kang discovers multiple motivations for the manicure-from the pampering of white middle class women to the artistic self-expression of working class African American women to the mass consumption of body-related services. Contrary to notions of beauty service establishments as spaces for building community among women, The Managed Hand finds that while tentative and fragile solidarities can emerge across the manicure table, they generally give way to even more powerful divisions of race, class, and immigration.

Abstract Background The impact of long-term night shift work is associated with greater health risks, including poorer health, reduced well-being, and higher stress levels. We aimed to investigate associations focusing on well-being, self-rated health, and stress in relation to age, gender, and job demands of night shift workers in the European health, social, and beauty sector. Methods Data were analyzed from the EU Shift2Health study based on an online survey of 2,425 night shift workers in the health, social and beauty sector from eight European countries (mean age: 39.3 years, with 71 % being female). Well-being was measured by the WHO-5 and stress by the PSS-4. Participants rated self-rated health, physical and mental workload in five categories. Statistical analyses included Mann-Whitney U tests, Spearman's rank-order correlations, and Pearson's chi-squared tests (p < .05). Results Men were more likely than women to rate their health as very good or excellent (p = .002). There were significant gender differences in perceived physical workload, with women more likely to report high levels (p = .012). The mean PSS-4 score was 6.23 and was not significantly associated with gender. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between stress and both mental (p < .001) and physical workload (p < .001). The mean WHO-5 score was 13.62, with women reporting lower levels of well-being than men (p < .001). Well-being was negatively correlated with both mental (p < .001) and physical workload (p < .001). Age was positively correlated with well-being (p < .001) and negatively correlated with self-rated health (p < .001). Conclusions The results indicate that occupational health programs for night workers in the study sector should be gender specific. The implementation of stress management programs is essential to improve perceived mental and physical workload. Key messages • Regular assessments of job demands, health, well-being, and stress enable timely interventions and improve workplace health and productivity. • Health interventions for night shift workers in the health, social, and beauty sector should be designed to address gender and age related needs.

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, as states began to implement business shutdowns to slow the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), Baker provided a dire estimate that 75% of US workers were employed in non-telework-friendly occupations and likely to either lose their job or risk exposure to SARS-CoV-2 at their workplace.1 As highlighted by Baker, the group least likely to be able to work from home-characterized as workers whose interactions with the public are essential-was estimated to earn the lowest mean annual income, approximately $34000 versus $66 000 for the most telework-friendly occupational group. This included workers in the retail, food service, beauty services, protective services, and transportation sectors.

Most nail salon workers in the greater New York City area are Asian immigrant women. They are exposed daily to potentially toxic chemicals and hazards in their workplace, making them more vulnerable for possible health problems. The study’s primary purpose was to identify factors influencing past year healthcare utilization among Asian immigrant women working in nail salons. A cross-sectional study was conducted based on a modification of Andersen’s behavioral model of healthcare utilization in which 148 Korean and Chinese immigrant women currently working in nail salons were surveyed. The questionnaire included: (1) individual health determinants, (2) health service utilization in the past year, and (3) work environment, work-related health concerns, and work-related health problems. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression models assessed factors related to past year healthcare utilization. Women who had health insurance (p < .01), a usual source of care (p < .01), low educational attainment (p < .05), and more work-related health symptoms (p < .05) were more likely to visit a primary care provider. Women who had health insurance (p < .01), a usual source of care (p < .05), and low educational attainment (p < .05), were also more likely to visit a woman’s health provider. Korean (rather than Chinese) women (p < .05) and women who perceived themselves to be in fair/poor health (p < .05) were more likely to see a traditional provider of Eastern medicine. Asian immigrant women who work in nail salons have workplace health and safety concerns. They generally use Western rather than traditional medicine, with different factors related to these two types of medicine.

This article analyzes nail technicians’ occupational health experiences using body and hazard mapping – a visual, low-cost, and worker-centred approach. Thirty-seven Torontobased nail technicians from predominantly Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean communities identified various occupational illnesses, injuries, and symptoms on visual representations of human bodies (body mapping) and linked these to their hazard sources in the nail salon (hazard mapping). The impacts identified include musculoskeletal aches and pains, stress and mental health concerns, various symptoms linked to chemical exposure, and concerns about cancer and reproductive health. Rather than a conventional occupational health approach, this work draws on Vanessa Agard-Jones’ expansion of the “body burden” as more than the bioaccumulation of chemical agents. As such, this article asserts that nail technicians’ body burden encompasses various types of occupational illnesses and injuries. In addition, nail technicians are exposed to broader “toxic” systemic inequities and structural conditions that allow these workplace exposures to occur and persist. By illustrating the embodied and experiential knowledges of nail technicians and contextualizing this lived experience, the body and hazard maps illuminate vast layers of harm – or multiscalar toxicities – borne by nail technicians. Moreover, as a group-based method, body and hazard mapping allow collective reflection and can spur worker mobilization toward safer and fairer nail salons.

This ethnographic study of service interactions in Korean immigrant women-owned nail salons in New York City introduces the concept \"body labor\" to designate a type of gendered work that involves the management of emotions in body-related service provision. The author explores variation in the performance of body labor caused by the intersection of the gendered processes of beauty service work with the racialized and class-specific service expectations of diverse customers. The study examines three distinct patterns of service provision that are shaped by racial and class inequalities between women: (1) high-service body labor, (2) expressive body labor, and (3) routinized body labor. These patterns demonstrate that a caring, attentive style of emotional display is dominant in workplaces governed by white, middle-class \"feeling rules\" but that different racial and class locations call forth other forms of gendered emotional management that focus on displaying respect, reciprocity, fairness, competence, and efficiency.

All around the world, the hairdressing sector constitutes a major occupational group, including about 90% women, most of whom are of reproductive age. Hairdressers are continuously exposed to numerous chemicals used in hair products, including endocrine-disrupting compounds such as resorcinol, parabens, phthalates, and UV filters. Few biomonitoring studies have explored occupational exposure to endocrine disruptors in hairdressers, and no data were found on their impact on the thyroid hormone system. Resorcinol is an oxidative hair dye with thyroid-disrupting properties that decrease thyroid hormone synthesis and could alter neurodevelopmental functions during fetal and perinatal stages in case of maternal exposure. This study aims to assess the occupational exposure to resorcinol in French hairdressers and analyze the relationship with biological thyroid parameters, taking into account the occupational exposure to other potential thyroid disruptors (parabens and UV filters like benzophenone and cinnamates). An exposed-unexposed cross-sectional study is proposed involving female hairdressers aged 18 to 45 years (working in hair salons) compared to occupationally unexposed controls (employed in office activities), who are recruited within 14 French occupational health centers. The hairdressers are followed during a 5-day working week to assess exposure data at both the individual level and the salon level. Urinary samples for the measurement of thyroid disruptors (resorcinol, parabens, metabolites of ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, and benzophenone-3) are collected at 6 time points (before the day 1 shift, before and after the day 3 and day 4 shifts, and before the day 5 shift). Daily work tasks and use of hair products are self-reported within the workplace, and a complete inventory of hair products within the salon is carried out. Thyroid disruption effects are assessed by measuring blood thyroid parameters: triiodothyronine, thyroxine, thyroid-stimulating hormone, thyroglobulin, thyroperoxidase, and thyroglobulin antibodies. To assess nonoccupational exposure to thyroid disruptors and other confounding factors, information on sociodemographic data, place of residence, food and tobacco consumption, personal use of care products, professional career, and medical history is collected through questionnaires. Regarding statistical analysis, urinary samples from hairdressers and controls will be compared, and adjusted multivariable models will be used to analyze health outcomes. The study duration extends from 2022 to 2027. As of December 2025, 9 occupational health centers have enrolled 66 hairdressers (employed in 54 hair salons) and 30 occupationally unexposed participants. The results will represent the first data on occupational exposure to resorcinol in France and its relationship with thyroid hormones in hairdressers. Following a multidisciplinary approach that includes biomonitoring, epidemiology, and exposure data collection at both the hairdressers and salon levels, this study enables an in-depth assessment of exposure to the thyroid disruptors in the workplace. Together with the inventory of hair products, these results may enhance the tools for chemical risk assessment and prevention in hair salons.

Librarians of color make up a small proportion of information professionals, but their perspectives should still be included in theory and best practices. This study seeks to create an inclusive understanding of reference and information service (RIS) by exploring the experience of RIS for librarians of color. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, the experience of RIS for eight librarians of color, from various ethnic groups and types of libraries, is analyzed. Five themes of experience emerged from the analysis: uniqueness and difference; broad range of professional skills; messiness and beauty of the human interaction; working in a web of outside forces; and learning, growth, and change. In relation to prior research, findings show that these librarians of color experience reference and information work as multifaceted and user-focused, in common with librarians in general. However, they have unique experiences of reference and information services work because of microaggressions and discrimination and because of their focus on serving as a role model or mentor.

Background: There is mounting empirical evidence that interacting with nature delivers measurable benefits to people which include physical health, cognitive performance, and psychological well-being. Aim: This study aimed at understanding and exploring how the power of nature and colleagues and principal support assist teachers to adapt and cope with stressors. Setting: The study was conducted in a private high school that uses the Cambridge Curriculum. Most of the students are from middle- and high-income households in the Roodepoort and Honeydew suburbs. Three male and eight female teachers participated in this study, with a mean age of 27 years and an age range between 24 years to 52 years. All the teachers were white, and they taught various subjects and they do not profess any particular religion. Methods: The study adopted a generic explorative qualitative design. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and incomplete sentences. Data were analysed using content analysis to arrive at the themes. Results: The themes that emerged during data analysis pointed out two major protective factors that enable teachers in this school to adapt and cope resiliently - the power of nature that surrounds the school (green space) and the principal and colleagues’ support in the school. Conclusion: Natural beauty that surrounds the school that resembled a park, as well as support of the principal and colleagues contributes teacher resilience in the school. Contribution: The findings from the study pointed out how school principal and colleagues could support teachers to cope and adapt to stressors, particularly the garden.

Given the proliferation of lifestyle consumption, industries such as the fields of fitness, fashion, and beauty and makeup have experienced rapid growth in terms of employment numbers, leading to fundamental challenges to working patterns. Based on ethnographic data concerning two fitness clubs in Shanghai collected over 13 months and 35 in-depth interviews with managers, fitness trainers, and customers, this article draws on the concept of aesthetic labor to examine how a “persona,” a combination of an ideal physique and a desirable personality in line with the aesthetic tastes of socioeconomically diverse clientele, is developed through the labor process of the fitness trainer. The author introduces the term “competing personas” to characterize shopfloor politics in the fitness industry. By understanding the process of packaging and selling their bodily, gendered, and affective resources as a “game,” fitness trainers draw symbolic boundaries to distinguish themselves from each other, thereby justifying their aesthetic competencies and self-identities. This article distinguishes three types of personas: advisor, friend, and idol, and these types are characterized by different corporeal and affective strategies. The article reveals how the exercise of agency by both male and female workers in the process of persona-building fuels the symbolic reproduction of class and gender inequalities by naturalizing the domination of an ostensibly legitimate taste.