When a Salon Group Chat Crossed the Line: Lessons from “The Dead Body” Episode
Salons are vibrant hubs of laughter, gossip, creativity, and sometimes chaos. Between client chatter and team banter, the line between professional and personal often blurs — especially in digital spaces. But what happens when a casual salon group chat crosses that line?
In the latest episode of Shit I Told My Hairdresser, hosts Jason and Jack tackle a jaw-dropping story that started with a group message and ended with something much darker — a real photo of a dead body.
It’s shocking, uncomfortable, and — as the hosts point out — a perfect example of why every salon needs boundaries, etiquette, and policies for digital communication.
When Group Chats Go Too Far
Jason describes being out to brunch with his family when his phone began buzzing non-stop. Dozens of messages lit up his screen from the salon group chat. Thinking there was an emergency — maybe a fire or an accident — he opened the thread.
Instead, someone had posted graphic photos of a suicide scene near the salon. A stylist living in a nearby apartment had snapped pictures from her balcony and shared them in the business chat, visible to coworkers — and, in Jason’s case, to his young son sitting beside him.
The shock was immediate. The horror, however, came later — realizing how little thought went into sharing something so personal and traumatic.
This isn’t just about bad judgment; it’s about professionalism, privacy, and the moral responsibility of every salon employee.
Digital Etiquette Is Professional Etiquette
Group chats are invaluable for salon teams — for scheduling, inventory, and quick coordination. But without boundaries, they can easily turn into after-hours noise, gossip hubs, or, in this case, something truly harmful.
Jason and Jack’s story highlights a critical truth: what you post in a business chat is an extension of your brand. A message sent in the wrong context can damage trust, cross legal lines, or traumatize others.
Here are the golden rules every salon should adopt:
Keep business chats for business. Create separate threads or channels for different purposes — scheduling, education, emergencies, and casual conversations.
Set quiet hours. No posts after 9 PM or before 8 AM unless it’s a real emergency.
Never post graphic or sensitive content. If there’s an emergency, alert management privately — never through a public group.
Remember your audience. Coworkers, assistants, even owners may have family nearby. Always post with professionalism in mind.
Think before you send. If you wouldn’t show it to a client, don’t send it to your team.
The Deeper Issue: Salon Culture and Oversharing
Part of what makes the beauty industry so magnetic is its openness — stylists connect through humor, honesty, and shared experience. But that same openness can make it easy to overshare or blur boundaries.
Jason and Jack connect this moment of digital chaos to broader salon culture problems: expired licenses, lax standards, shady training programs, and unprofessional behavior masked as “authenticity.”
Their point? The industry’s informality is both its greatest strength and its biggest risk. It builds connection — but without structure, it can spiral into chaos.
Protecting Your Team, Clients, and Reputation
Here’s how to fix it before it happens in your salon:
Write a clear chat policy. Outline what’s acceptable and what’s not. Post it where everyone can see it.
Limit admin privileges. Assign one or two managers to oversee all group chats.
Encourage digital boundaries. Remind staff to mute notifications during off-hours.
Hold short trainings. Teach online etiquette just like you’d teach sanitation or color mixing.
React fast to violations. Delete inappropriate posts, issue warnings, and follow through on accountability.
These may seem like small steps, but in an era where screenshots travel faster than scissors can cut, a written policy could save your business’s reputation.
Why This Story Resonates
What makes The Dead Body episode so powerful isn’t just the shock value — it’s the authenticity behind it. Jason and Jack aren’t preaching from a corporate HR manual. They’re stylists who’ve lived through the unfiltered chaos of salon life and can laugh about it because they’ve survived it.
That authenticity builds EEAT — Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s what separates gossip from insight and makes the story both educational and unforgettable.
Final Takeaway
Salon culture thrives on connection — but without digital discipline, that same connection can cause harm. A group chat is not a diary, not a therapy session, and definitely not the place for graphic images.
By setting boundaries, creating clear communication channels, and modeling respect, salon leaders can prevent chaos before it starts — and keep the salon community vibrant, supportive, and human.
Because sometimes the scariest thing in a salon isn’t a bad haircut — it’s the message that shouldn’t have been sent.
Hey dude, gimme your phone. Why do you need it? 'cause I need to take a picture of my shit. Why would
you do
that? Because I can't send pictures of the salon owner of shit on my phone.
Oh, well why didn't you say that in the first place?
I.
So excited. So excited. I can't wait
What are you excited about, Jack?
the show.
Well introduce it
No, that's not my job.
now. It is. Go ahead.
No, it's not. Welcome to Shit. I told my hairdresser.
Jack has a new job.
Yay.
Ah, all right. We're both here. All. You didn't get wrapped up.
Uh, not yet.
No. We still have, I think one more day
selling everything.
uh,
all my belongings, and
I think that's against the rules, isn't it? Like, isn't there? Like you have to give it away.
money with you. So, [00:01:00] um.
Oh,
I don't know what they're talking about. You know, it's, they're all
so we.
so.
you get wrapped up, if you wear a skirt, do you get up skirt and people like, if they're going up underneath you, can you look up other people's skirts as well too? In you?
Yeah. Um, those
I'm gonna wear, I'm gonna wear a skirt.
the naughty ones who were left behind, you know? Um,
Oh, that's us.
no, that's you.
That is true. I'm still here, so I guess God didn't want me.
Mm.
He's, uh, he's got other plans for me.
You are just unwanted, I think. Um,
I think so.
yeah. Yeah.
I think so. Anyhow, uh, since we're both here and we're both together, maybe we should talk some shit.
Yeah.
talk some shit. Why not? Let's, let's, uh, get into it. What, what'd he say? Um, okay, so. I need to go through and talk about something. I wanna talk about something that really, really bugs the fuck outta me, [00:02:00] and it's something that's been going on since what now?
Not every, well, almost, uh, most everything.
Yeah.
Any, it's more of when the iPhone came out, when text messages came out more specific, when group text messages came out.
Okay.
And then people could go through and you get put into a group chat,
Hmm.
and especially when it comes to the salon, and then everyone gets on there and they start sending messages over the dumbest shit.
And it's a, it's meant to be just for the salon, right? So.
Hmm.
I mean, if there's a class going on, or, Hey, the hot water heater's out, that's something everyone should know about when the shampoo bowls are down. please don't leave your client at the bowl with a toner for an hour and a half, shit like that.
That's what the text message thread is for. All right. But. People will [00:03:00] go through and start these text message threads and they will go all the way until like midnight, especially if people are going out like hairdressers or you know, they have like a salon party or some show like that and everyone's wasted sending photos and pictures and, Hey, where'd you park your car?
You know, Hey, can I drunk drive you home? Hey, you know it, it drives me fucking crazy.
it on that group message though? That's what I don't understand.
I don't understand that either,
come you're not going out with them?
because I have a family. I have a kid now. I'm like, no,
they want you to go out.
I have been out with 'em. And it's, it's annoying. I don't, I don't do that anymore. You want it years ago? Yes, I was one of the guys going out. I mean, shit, we were the ones throwing the fucking parties
Yeah.
back in the day. You know what I mean? but now, even if it's not just like they're out, if they're sending text messages and they've had a couple of drinks, or most hairdressers are doing like on a, you [00:04:00] know, when, Sunday, Wednesday?
Well, any day of the week, you're for your hairdresser. Uh, if someone starts a little bit of a rant, it'll go all the way until midnight. And they're like, they're sending little like memes and they're sending photos and they're sending like, and you're like, sh, just shut the fuck up.
so you're not annoyed that. Going out and everything. You're annoyed that you get the text messages
I'm getting the alerts.
somebody, why do you even on there?
Well, because sometimes you need to be on there because they actually have something that you might need to know. Uh, but that's what it should be kept to. It should be for salon information, but send it during salon hours, you know what I mean? Not like 10 o'clock at night, 12 o'clock at night. So I had to put a silence on it.
But we know you look at your phone later on, there's like 22 messages on there. You're like, what the fuck is this
What happened?
exactly?
um, here's what happened. Uh, [00:05:00] doesn't know where she parked her car. She's so
Right,
That's what happened. Yeah.
exactly.
um, you don't need to know all that. so we have, uh, and like a lot of offices use that. and it's, you can have it in categories or departments even, you know, it's like, like ours has education, uh. Casual combos, whatever, you know, and then just different ones. But of like how you're there's always one that on to like this one. you have. To go in and like, dig around through the, like, Hey, who left Hises in the sink? You know, it's like, to
Yeah.
Horton, she, so like, it's all mixed in. Um, they don't know how to use it. Totally. You
But at least you have an app and it's not like your phone and my watch and like everything is like dinging and like my laptop because I have all Apple. So everything is connected.[00:06:00]
I do have to silence a lot of that
Yeah.
because people will like it, and that's another alert. You know, it's like you don't need to like anything. Just read
You want, but seriously, if it's that important, just put it in a fucking email and send it to me. Quit sending me alerts at like 10 o'clock at night or something like that. You know what I mean? Unless it's like the salon actually did burn down. You know, there is an emergency and there all of our shit is burnt and it is in a rubble.
Okay. That fucking sucks. I'll buy new scissors, you know? But it is what it is. So you, but there was one time where there was, I'm talking all these text messages on a Sunday, and I'm out to brunch with my family and I look at my phone and there had to been like, I think at least like 40 alerts on my phone.
And I'm like, holy shit, something's up.
happening. Yeah.
So I go through and I open up my phone and I think my son is sitting on my lap and [00:07:00] I'm like kind of seeing what's going on. There's some of our emergency vehicles, you know, outside the salon and hey, the main, there's a, there's a main street and we're like literally right off of Main Street is where the salon is at, right where we're at, and.
The, the road was blocked off and no one knows what's going on. And you know, everyone's like, it is, everyone's just trying to figure out what's happening down the road. Right. And one of the girls just happened to live on Main Street, then one of the apartments, and she went outside to see what was going on and one of her neighbors jumped off the building and committed suicide and died.
Whoa.
And so they had the whole street, like, you know, they had to bring the corner in and do an investigation and have everything, you know, basically roped off. And so that's, you wanna what? Okay. That's important. We need to, people need to know that if you're at work,
Yeah. Yeah,
know, so that way, like clients [00:08:00] know it's a, but there's still, the salon's still open.
People are working Sunday.
People are working on Sundays, and so that way they, they, hey the front desk and call clients and say, Hey, come around this direction and park on this side of where the salon is at because there's, you know, emergency services happening on Main Street. Please avoid Main Street if you're coming down to the salon.
Yeah.
Well, that wasn't enough for this person
and for some of the staff equally as well, because they started asking for photos. So they could see what was happening and
do you mean of? Of the person that jumped off the building.
Exactly
Oh,
correct. So the next thing you know, I have photos on my phone of a dead body. This person thought it'd be okay to go through and take pictures of a dead body from their balcony and then post it on the salon chat that I'm looking at with my [00:09:00] family having brunch and my son is sitting on my, sitting in my lap and I'm like, holy shit.
When you see a photo, you're not knowing exactly what it's gonna be. Then you realize what it is. I nearly had to like, like throw my phone.
he liked Zoom in or?
It is only like three stories up so you can get a good shot with an iPhone.
you know what it is. You, geez,
Oh. But she ran off of the roof. All right. So the, you saw everything and it's not pretty when you hit the ground, it's not pretty. There's blood everywhere and everything, you know, and,
yeah. Yeah.
and it's, you know, and of course my son was like, what's that? And I'm like, uh, you want nothing? Halloween stuff. I don't know what to say, you know?
But if you're gonna do that, if you're gonna post pictures, tell fucking people or send it directly to them. Do not put it on the business. Chat from the salon. What the fuck were you thinking?
somebody asked, she thought it was okay.
[00:10:00] So send it to that person. Everyone's phone numbers on the chat.
They don't think about that. it's just, there's, there's no decency here. Um, do you have the now? Let's see it.
Oh no, it's gone.
Okay.
No, I deleted that shit. I don't need that on my phone. Imagine that's the last thing I need on my phone. You know what I mean? So, absolutely not, but I, I couldn't believe, I mean, you want it now? I'm kinda like, you wanna want, you want, wanna text each other about like getting drunk or trying to find your fine.
Go ahead. Do not post pictures of dead people. What I mean on not only that though, that poor family, there's photos of them flying, probably flying around out there or floating around of your, of your family members'. Dead body
Yeah.
have some fucking decency.
Someone's like, whoa, shit. Look at
Yeah.
and it probably with others, you know? Um, you know what you should have done, as in them, uh, photo of your shit.
[00:11:00] Ah,
you know, no one asked to see that. And so
okay. You wanna I,
do you feel about that?
odd, odd. Oddly enough though, I Have you heard of that?
Yeah.
People. No, no, no. People will go into porta-potties and they'll, especially on construction sites, write down your phone number.
Mm-hmm.
We're not telling you to do this, by the way, please don't do this. If you want revenge on somebody, please do not do this.
Do not write down the person that you hates, phone number and put it on the inside of a porta-potty in a construction site, and then say, send me the pics of your shit. Because we would not want you to do that. Don't do that. Don't do. No,
It's, probably legal,
we do not recommend that you do that. We're saying please don't.
Yeah.
And by the way, Jack's phone number is three one oh five five five seven two. He definitely wants to see your shit.
[00:12:00]
And we are back. So we had state board walk in this week was nice the last time you
had that happen? I don't even know. Um, I don't know. It's been a while, so like it's happened. Uh, I don't think I was ever there. Yeah. Whatever. How long it was like I just wasn't around. There was, once I worked at uh, Paul Mitchell, the school for like eight months or something, one year.
Um. And they came in and me, and there was another instructor, um, who worked there. Neither one of us had our teaching license that she had to have there. So yeah, we were just like, Hey, let's just leave. And I won't even know we worked there except I had like three haircuts going, so like with students and I needed my help, so I had to stick around a little bit.
Right. [00:13:00] What I did was I just like sat down in a chair and put like a cape over myself.
Yeah.
Like I was kinda had my hair cut and they would just walk up and ask me for help or whatever, and I would look around and go and help them and then back down.
Yeah. So,
yeah. So
for those of you who don't know, state board for hairdressers is kinda like, uh, when.
The health board comes walking into a restaurant. Yeah. To check and see if like, you know, everything is clean and at temperature. And that's what these guys do. They come in and usually it's someone who's never been a hairdresser, has nothing to do with the hairdressing world, and they walk into salons to make sure that everything that they don't know about should be run properly and everything is done the way it's supposed to.
According to their little book, and that's which is about walking in
40 years out of [00:14:00] date, correct. At least
40 years. Yeah, at least 40 years. You know, so of course this guy comes in. Oddly enough, this guy that came in didn't even have an iPad. He must have been so new. All they had, all he had was a notebook and a pen, and he was like drawing little pictures down.
And then had, uh, he had these sheets of paper that had like the stations kind of on them,
uhhuh,
and it was already pre-drawn out for him. He was like writing little names on it. And I was like, didn't he even give you an iPad or a laptop? Nothing. He had nothing.
You know what? Maybe he walked in from 1991.
It it seemed like it. Maybe that's it. Really did.
That's where he came from. Um,
exactly. Yeah. Maybe we'll never get a report afterwards, you know? But
it's in the mail.
Exactly. It's in the US mail. Yeah. Yeah. Whoever uses that anymore, but come to find out [00:15:00] two of the people there. Guess what? Same as you. No license.
I'm like, you've got to be kidding me.
No hair license, nothing. Oh, you're kidding. How did they even, they've
expired. They expired and they just forgot about it. They
did have it. They did have it.
Yes.
They didn't want to pay for it. Right.
It wasn't like an ex-girlfriend of yours who had never ever had one.
You mean the one who, um, has a huge product line at Sephora.
Exactly that one.
And Ulta. Yeah. Um, Uhhuh.
Yeah. I never had a license, need a license before. Ever.
Never.
Because you helped forge her Dr. Her license at one time. Yeah, I sure did. So we're not gonna mention that name or anything, but, oh, wow. It was, uh.
Yeah. Anyhow. That
was the way,
that was the way back then, wasn't it? Yeah. Way back then. Uhhuh, there's some people who still don't have a [00:16:00] license, but these girls had licenses. Come to find out one of them. She found out that her license was expired. 'cause the state of Washington doesn't even mail you a letter.
Oh, yeah. You know, and you, you don't get an email unless you sign up for the emails and her license. That was expired for an exact, like a year and a day. And then the day after, they sent her a message saying that her license had been expired for over a year because now you have to retake the test.
Wow.
What the whole, um, the whole thing or just like test the
written? So you have to go? No, all of it. The practical and the written.
It's like you have to roll up a perm and Yes, Uhhuh, like a mock, do a fake nail. And. Yeah. Oh God. Yeah. So they have to, I could retest pass that, you know, it's like I did that actually when I moved to California.
So like I had my Texas license [00:17:00] and, uh. So I had been doing hair for five years already, at least five or six years. So they accepted those hours or those years as hours. So like, uh, I didn't have to have hours. I did have to take a board test, so I didn't know how to do that. You know, it's like it. To nail.
I didn't know anything. So California
does not grant reciprocity to other states. Washington does. Yeah. So I actually got granted Respiration Colorado did when I moved here. Yes. Well, here's the thing. I keep both licenses up. I pay for both of them just in case something like this happens.
Yeah.
Right. And you miss it.
So that way I can just reapply for Respir porosity enough to take a test.
Yeah. You
know, because I'm not gonna go down there and do like a roller set or a pin curl, or
I'll just, who knows what a curl, find a new occupation, or I'll go and fucking work at state board or something. I don't know.
I mean, I'm in Seattle, so I [00:18:00] can work for Costco or Starbucks or something like that.
You know that they're all Seattle companies, but where you could work is ice. Ooh, no. No. Okay. No thanks. No, thank you. Not working for the Secret Police, uh, oppo. Yeah. But in California where we worked at, so we worked at Tony and guide the guys who created Bedhead. Everyone wanted to work for this company, so there was a lot of people who wanted to work at the salons in California.
And this is where we had the main flagship. That was like the biggest shop they ever had was in Newport Beach when it had 40. That one that had 47 chairs. And let me tell you, we had a waiting list, people to work there. And so people were trying to come in 'cause we would do the classes, people would wanna learn from us and they wanted to work for us.
And so they had to get their California license first. Now you went through this, you had to go through and take [00:19:00] the test. Yeah. But you also had to go through, you didn't have to, but in order to pass it, there was this beauty school in, I, I wanna say somewhere close to Newport Beach that I'm, I knew one of the instructors there, her name was Miss Kathy.
I think it was in Anaheim, something
like
that. I think it was Anaheim.
And she would get people prepared to take mm-hmm.
The state
board exam,
because I met her. She
helped Yeah. You to a court for like, she helped you with that
two hours and then I failed it anyway. Um, 'cause I didn't know how to do nails and, and things like that.
Makeup didn't even do the makeup.
Did you have to do it on a life model?
Yeah. Yeah. I, so,
okay. Now they don't, they use doll heads.
Really? Yeah. So now
it's even easier. So now you can just use a doll head. You don't have to have use live model. Because back then you had to drag, you know, find somebody [00:20:00] on the day off, drag them down there, and then do it on 'em.
That's,
that's what happened. I wound up having to pay someone a hundred dollars to fail, to get a perm and then come with me at like six in the morning up in la you know, like she didn't live in la she lived in Orange County and then she really needed a hundred dollars and so, um, she had so much hair.
And I failed the test, so I had to take it again, and I had already moved there. Couldn't work at the Solana. I did work at the academy. Right. 'cause you didn't have to have a license. License, correct. Do that. You know. Um, so the next time I had the test, my mom was my model. So passed with all that. Like she hardly had any hair.
So perfect.
Yeah. So Miss Kathy though. Mm-hmm. I need to focus on her now because I was sending [00:21:00] people to her all the time to get them prepared to take their state board exam.
Yeah.
And there was one guy that I sent, 'cause I sent you, of course you went to, you went to her and there was this one guy named Heath who was from Arizona and.
He wanted to work for us. So I said, Hey, go see Miss Kathy. She'll work you on through it. Here's her phone number. Give her a call and she'll take you through it. And I mean, so many, she's got so many people to pass. And he goes, all right. So after he went to go and see her, he, uh, came and saw me again and we were talking and he was like, Hey, so, um, where did, where does this person normally go through and have the, you?
Take the courses at. I'm like, well, normally at the beauty school, he is. Well, that's what I thought.
Yeah.
But she, you know, met him and she was like, Hey, why don't you come to my house and we can do it there instead. Right. So that way, no. And I was like, what? And she goes, yeah. So we went to her house and I had a doll head and, and some other stuff and you know, [00:22:00] and all of a sudden she was like, you know, bringing out some beers.
And I'm like, wait, what? And he was like, yeah, and then she gets into her bathing suit and cranks up the hot tub, and I'm like, wait, whoa, whoa. Yeah.
It's part of the test, you know?
I guess. I guess it is now.
Yeah.
You know, but he was like, you know, going like, he, he's, I told her, he is like, Hey, you wanna what?
I really wanna learn this stuff. I, I really need to take the exam. I need to pass it. He's like, he was saying no to any alcohol and she's like, oh, just have a beer with me. You know what I mean? Like, but he smoking already had, has cigarettes and like he already had
Arizona. Oh yeah. Um, I know who you're talking about.
Yeah. Yeah. Like the DJ thing.
Exactly. He liked him. So now she's trying to get a piece. You know what Uhhuh I mean, and I'm like, I was dying when he started telling me this. I'm like, wait a minute. No, you never do this at her house. She has you [00:23:00] do it at the beauty school, like after hours. Yeah. You know, I was like, they close the school down and then she takes you through it.
You know? She shows you how to pass Uhuh, not with him. After she met him, she wanted to get down his pants. She wanted to get a little taste.
Did you end up naked in the hot tub?
I hope so. I, I think you wanna know. He didn't say much after that. I can only imagine. He probably thought it was part of the test.
I hope he did. Listen. If this is who I think it is, he will fuck anyone so well,
he did pass the test, so
maybe,
you know, well, okay.
Um, he must have got extra credit.
Yeah. Yeah. But after, after he told me that I, anybody who I sent over to her, I told them, I said, make sure she does it at the beauty school and not her house.
And some of the good looking guys I sent over. They, she would invite them to the house.
Wow. You know, why don't you just say, you know what, bring your bathing suit.
Exactly. Yeah. [00:24:00] You're gonna
need it.
You scratch my scaly back, I'll scratch yours. You know? Oh, she was old. She was not a, she was not a good looking lady.
Lemme tell you something,
miss Kathy was no looker. No. And she,
uh, she looked like she should work part-time at a diner. That's what she looked like. You know, she looked, she like, you know, chain smoke, Newport, cigarettes, you know what I mean? And worked at a diner, you know, moonlighted a diner. Yeah, yeah. On the weekends.
That's what she looked like, you know, that didn't any clue, you know, and here we are, like these, like, you know, 20 somethings, you know, hairdressers trying to look all cool and shit. And you're like, with this woman in her fifties, she's like. Why don't you come back to my house and I'll show you how to pass that test.
Wouldn't you be more comfortable in some hot water? Come.
And now it's time
for shit [00:25:00] ology. Jason, the next time you get one of those stupid group text messages from your salon after 10:00 PM let them all know that the numbers will be added to the inside of door of a construction site. Porta-Potty requesting shit picks the longest swamp snake wins a free haircut.
When state board agents raid your salon, know your rights. There's no laws prohibiting you from following them around, making fart noises while they make notes, and if that doesn't make 'em leave, start asking 'em out relentlessly. There's no laws against that either. Don't let anything deter you. Male female, married.
Not interested, just keep at it. For a last resort, just drop your pants and start shaving that coer. Does this look sanitary to you? They'll never come [00:26:00] back after that. And with that, stay shitty and see you next time.
Hey listener persons. If you are enjoying this podcast, please give us a rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or Amazon Prime Podcast or wherever you get your favorite. Shit. It definitely helps out our algorithm. Also, check out our shitty posts on Instagram at shit. I told my hairdresser. We can give us a follow and like some of our content.
If you like to get your story on our podcast, go to our website at Shit. I told my hairdresser.com. You can leave us a voicemail using the green mic icon or send us an email. And if you like us, tell 10 of your friends. And if you hate us, tell 20. And remember, stay shitty listener [00:27:00] persons.