Aware that we often write about Latinas, hair and hairy Latinas, a friend pitched us a story on Dominican hair salons that appeared in The New York Times. After first berating him for creating work for us to do, we noted that the story seemed very familiar. That was probably because we wrote a post concerning a very similar story that had appeared in The NY Daily News this past January.

So we’re sitting here wondering what to make of this. Is there a disproportionate number of domestic abuse cases among Dominican women living in New York? Do these women often lack friends or family members with whom they can confide? Both articles include interviews with Ingrid Dominguez, director of the child welfare agency’s Washington Heights Family Preservation Program:

NY Daily News (1/6/2008)

Ingrid Dominguez, director of a city-funded family services agency in Washington Heights and central Harlem, created the three-year pilot project after observing a woman tell a salon stylist about an abusive relationship.

Dominguez said she thought that if her agency could train salon workers in domestic violence awareness, her counselors could reach cases that may not otherwise get referred to them.

A similar program in Birmingham, Ala., dubbed Cut It Out, launched in 2000 and has expanded to 50 states, according to its founder.

The program started by Dominguez aims to bring domestic-abuse prevention instructors into the hundreds of salons scattered across Washington Heights, a center of the city’s Dominican community.

NY Times (11/19/2008)

Ingrid Dominguez, the director of the child welfare agency’s Washington Heights Family Preservation Program, who happened to be getting her hair done at Porto Pelo that day, knew where to get help. She knew all about nearby therapy and community resources, and knew all about violence in the home. She estimated that domestic violence was the root cause of about 95 percent of the hundreds of cases that crossed her desk each year, some as seemingly simple as student absenteeism.

Basically, we’re thrilled that Ingrid Dominguez and others like her are offering this (apparently much-needed) service. But what of the underlying reasons that women in abusive relationships feel they have no one else to turn to other than their hairdressers? Is it shame? Is it easier to talk about personal things with someone who happens to be close, but not to close?

And why is there such a prevalence of abuse among Dominican women? Is machismo to blame? Lack of available family members in the states? Religious aversion to divorce? We just hope that the reasons that these problems are occurring among this population is being addressed as well.

Also, NY Times? Regarding this paragraph:

And Candida Vasquez received a hysterical call from a customer soon after she had spent three hours knitting extensions into the woman’s hair. Her boyfriend hated the look, and in a fit of rage he had cut off not only the extensions, but also the rest of her hair.

Wow, really? Hysterical? Would a man making an angry phone call after being treated with violence also count as “hysterical?” Or would that phone call be “impassioned”, “angry”, “fearful” or “distressed?” Damn.

Cutting Hair, While Cutting to the Chase on Clients’ Domestic Abuse [The New York Times]