Rhonda Keenom considers herself more than her customers' hairstylist. She said she is a confidante and a friend.

And for those reasons, the Sun City West stylist said she and others in her profession can play a role in reducing incidents of domestic violence.

"After doing their hair for years, you personally know them," Keenom said. "And they feel like we're their confidantes and friends and tell us things they don't tell anyone else."

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard agrees, and that's why his office, the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Arizona State Board of Cosmetology want to get the word out about a program developed in 2005.

The class is taught as part of the curriculum of Empire cosmetology schools' nine campuses in Arizona by representatives from the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

Goddard said the program teaches stylists how they can approach customers in a non-threatening, secure setting of the salon to refer them to social services.

"Very often, beauty shop personnel are the first ones to notice signs of battery because they are called upon to cover up the tell-tale signs, bruises and lost hair," Goddard said.
Keenom said she knows of some clients being exploited financially by relatives, has some who burst into tears after being dropped off by their abusive grandchildren and has others who are victims of physical or emotional abuse from their spouses.

"And it's not only the women - it's the men, too," she said.
In the Cut It Out program, cosmetologists are trained on how to recognize abuse, but they are taught not to intervene.

"They might say to the client, 'You might be having trouble at home, so you might want to call this number,'" Goddard said. "And they can give them a shoe card - a card that is designed to hide into the shoe - in English and Spanish, which has 800 numbers where trained operators are standing by 24 hours a day."
Goddard said the program doesn't track clients who have been referred by their stylists.

"But we have heard from a lot of cosmetologists who believe they have had a successful intervention," Goddard said. "So I have every reason to believe that a lot have found a lifeline."
As a cosmetologist in a retirement community, Keenom said she has seen and heard a variety of abuse stories.

"Caregivers are hasty and blunt and short to them. It might not be physical, but that is emotional abuse," Keenom said. "And sometimes when a client comes in injured and we ask what happened, the caregiver said they fell, answering quickly for them."
When Keenom suspected abuse and talked with clients, she heard them give excuses for their treatment.

"He's just trying to get me to understand things, they would say," Keenom said. "And I have heard, 'He's sick and not in his right mind.'"
Keenom herself came from an abusive family, and an abusive first marriage.

"You can see the fear in them and sense it," Keenom said. "I've told them sometimes what they were experiencing was a form of emotional abuse, and they don't have to put up with that."
She said she also has seen older men being treated abusively in frustration by their caregivers, who do things like force them to walk faster than they are able.

"They hurry them up and pull them along," Keenom said. "I'm struck by the meanness of it."
Keenom said she and other cosmetologists have contacted authorities in the past about suspected abuse cases.

"It's very sad seeing someone come in in tears," Keenom said.
Keenom said being trained in the Cut It Out program will be helpful for all cosmetologists who work in the Sun Cities.

"Sometimes when clients are brought in, this is the only time they get out between home and the doctor," Keenom said. "And sometimes the caregiver comes in with the client and never leaves their side so they can't talk freely."

For information, call the Office of the Arizona Attorney General at 602-542-6903 or visit the Attorney General's 'Cut It Out' Web site at http://www.azag.gov/CutItOut/

Joy Slagowski may be reached at 623-876-2514, or jslagowski@yourwestvalley.com.