After trauma—especially something like rape—many people are drawn to careers or activities that involve the body, appearance, or a sense of control over personal space. Cosmetology focuses on hair, skin, and overall appearance, which can feel like a way to reclaim some control over your body, explore self-expression, or even help others feel empowered in their own bodies.

It’s also common for trauma survivors to be drawn to “healing through touch or beauty,” because working with hair and skin can be tactile and nurturing, both for yourself and for clients.There are several psychological and emotional reasons why someone who has experienced trauma—especially sexual trauma—might be drawn to cosmetology or other body-focused careers:

1. Reclaiming Control Over the Body
   • After rape, a person often feels that their body has been violated and out of their control. Cosmetology gives a structured, safe way to choose how the body looks and feels—hair, skin, nails—so you can exercise agency over your own body and others’ in a professional, consensual way.
2. Restoring Self-Esteem and Confidence
   • Working with beauty and appearance can help rebuild self-image. Helping clients feel beautiful can also reflect back a sense of value and competence, which trauma often shakes.
3. Safe Touch and Boundaries
   • Cosmetology involves touching people, but in a clearly defined, consensual, and professional way. For someone who’s been violated, this can be a way to retrain the body and mind around touch—turning it from a source of fear into a source of empowerment.
4. Therapeutic or Healing Outlet
   • Hair, skin, and nails are very tangible forms of transformation. Seeing immediate, visible results from your work can be very satisfying psychologically—it’s a way of creating beauty in a world that may have felt unsafe or chaotic.
5. Connection Through Caregiving
   • Cosmetology is also about nurturing and caring for others. Trauma can make people feel isolated or disconnected; helping someone look and feel good can be a gentle way to rebuild human connection.
6. Symbolic Rewriting of Experience
   • Hair and skin are intimate parts of the body, often tied to identity and sexuality. Working with these can be a subtle way of processing trauma—taking something that might have been a source of vulnerability and turning it into skill, beauty, and empowerment.

It’s not unusual for trauma survivors to unconsciously gravitate toward fields where they can reclaim agency over the body, whether it’s cosmetology, massage therapy, dance, or fitness.