Always happy: an ideal is reproduced and challenged in hairdresser vocational education and training

ABSTRACT In the hairdressing occupation emotional labour has often come to overshadow other vocational skills. The present study, using ethnographic methods, explores how students and teachers in vocational education and training (VET) for hairdressers in Sweden describe and explain the emotional labour being carried out when a hairdresser perform good service. The results show that to look happy and smile has a central position in students’ and VET teachers’ descriptions of how an ideal service worker is expected to act. A positive attitude and a special voice are other signs that characterise the hairdresser who provides good service. The happy ideal is both reproduced and challenged from students in the hairdresser education. One conclusion is that an ideal service worker reinforces femininity norms to act as a professional, which is in line with the requirements of the hairdresser education and the customer’s and employers’ expectations. At the same time, the happy ideal limits students’ opportunities to challenge and question prevailing power structures, which is also part of the Swedish upper secondary school mission.