In the beauty industry, awareness and acceptance of neurodivergence is gaining traction, and industry leaders are hopeful about what that means for the future.
At the recent 2025 International Beauty Show-New York panel discussion, "Neurodiversity in the Beauty Industry: Unspoken Challenges & Hidden Potential," the consensus was that the conversation is finally happening — and it’s creating space for connection, growth, and meaningful change in the beauty space.
"I love that we're having this conversation up here," said salon business educator and mental health advocate Dawn Bradley. "There's more support, and the message is being spread, and we're feeling more safe to talk openly about it."
Kate Owens-Heins is CEO and founder of Sensory Safe Solution, which offers certification training for salons and stylists to become more accommodating for neurodivergent clients and staff. She acknowledged that while progress varies across the field, the next generation of beauty professionals is poised to lead with greater awareness and inclusivity.
“I believe all of us came into this industry to serve others and make everybody feel great,” Owens-Heins said. “This audience of students is going to be the future — and hopefully do better than ours.”
She told the audience why she started Sensory Safe Solution in the first place: "There was a little guy in my salon who had hair all the way down his back, and the next time I saw him he had a #1 buzz cut, head fully shaved. I said, what happened to my friend?
"And the woman next to me laughed and said, you didn't know? That's the official haircut of autism.
"I said, Hell no! Not anymore," she recalled. "That community can have more, does deserve more, and we can do better.
"We need to change our thinking. I was raised in the era of 'come in, you're next, sit down, put your body like this,'" Owens-Heins said. "Let's switch it. How about 'What makes you comfortable?'
"How about we start serving our guests at a high level?"
Moderator Keya Neal, founder of Texture vs Race, called the current movement both heartening and necessary. “We’re making so much room for everybody, no matter what their intersection is,” Neal said. “And I love that for us as a beauty industry.”
Currently, awareness and accommodation within beauty businesses is varied at best.
Hairstylist Kitt Spata noted that the level of inclusivity of a salon environment usually depends on the owner or stylist's personal experience with neurodivergence. The solution for Spata: moving to a salon suite.
"Working in a salon was so overstimulating for me," they said. "Being in a salon suite where I can close the door and turn off the music has done so much for me in my personal bandwidth."
Spata has put several measures in place to create a welcoming space for clients, including sending out an "accomodation form" to every client before their appointment.
"It's like my little bible of things I can do to care for people," Spata said. "They can check off what they need. The most obvious are 'silent appointments' or 'light conversation.'
"I have 'music: light or low.' I have 'not facing the mirror.' I ask whether they want to be on my social media or not. There's an 'other' category where they can put exactly what they need," they said.
"I have thought of so many ways to meet my clients where they're at, and let them have several avenues to tell me what they need — whether it's over text or DM or through the form or in person," Spata said.
Bradley, who openly shares her own experience with ADHD, said she almost quit the business before she even got started. She emphasized the power of peer-to-peer support.
“There’s a lot of, ‘Yes, I feel that same way. I feel seen,'” Bradley said. “But now we need to ask, how can we take responsibility and move forward? We need to have support and encouragement."
She noted that embracing one's own neurodivergence is the best — and often, only — pathway to success for many individuals. "Your way to success is the way to do it," she said. "I thought I had to 'be somebody' in order to be successful. But being authentic is what makes you, you."
"I'm a shy, anxious, awkward, small-town girl with ADHD and didn't know it," Bradley said. "I've burned out multiple times because, before I was diagnosed, I had no idea what was going on.
"I didn't know how to take care of myself. I found so much self-worth and self-value in external validation. If I could stay late, if I could come in on my day off — it filled up this little insecure girl inside of me who didn't feel like I fit, who didn't feel like I belonged, who didn't feel like I was enough," she shared.
"It's really important to understand yourself and how you work. And to not feel bad for needing extra time, for needing extra care," she said. "I kept trying to avoid my ADHD, and kept trying to be like everyone else, instead of honoring my unique process."