06/09/2024 – 16:54
She has the ability to completely transform a person’s appearance. Just change the texture, length and color of your hair, and a new personality emerges. Raquél Reis, 41 years old, has been making wigs for over a decade. She has produced up to 200 different hairs in a month. A heavy work routine, which caters to professionals from the art world, to ordinary people who suffer from hair loss due to cancer treatment.
“It is very demanding and expensive work. The person wants you to make it to measure, in the shape of their head, you have to take measurements, make markings, thread by thread, so that everything appears wonderfully natural. It’s complicated”, says Raquél. “But I love this power of transformation. Every time I make a wig for someone, I first put it on myself, see if I’m happy and comfortable, then I pass it on to my client. It’s a beautiful market, growing more and more. In the past, there was a prejudice against wigs. Not today”.
Related news:
The work of wig maker is one of the 19 new professions recognized in the Brazilian Occupations Guide. It was launched last Thursday (6) by the Ministry of Labor and Employment and the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Raquél Reis says that producing wigs guarantees enough remuneration to pay the bills. Demand before the pandemic was greater, but has been increasing progressively. She prefers to work independently, to be able to serve everything from ordinary clients to larger artistic productions for cinema, television and theater. Currently, she is involved in the play The Lion King, on display in São Paulo. Has worked for films Our dreamabout the duo Claudinho and Buchecha, and Mamonas Assassinas.
The demand from people with cancer, who lose their hair due to chemotherapy, is also usually high. Raquél has already helped 18 people with this need in one month. A job that, despite not yet bringing a high financial return, brings a lot of satisfaction in being able to help people regain a little of their self-esteem.
“When someone is starting chemotherapy, I can take the client’s own hair and make the wig. Before, I asked some friends to collect hair. But one day no one could go and I went along, I ended up crying along with the client. Now I’m being more professional. It’s hard to see a woman losing what she loves, because that’s the frame of our face. But the person cries at the moment and, after they put their hair on, they smile again”, says Raquél.
Brazilian Occupation Guide
The updated version of the Brazilian Occupations Guide lists 2,609 professions in the labor market. The idea is that the document serves as a reference for workers, students, employers and researchers. There is information about the average salary, skills, knowledge and requirements for each occupation. In addition to data on dismissals and admissions in 2023.
The 19 occupations that appear on the list for the first time do not yet have all of the information above. Entry into the Brazilian Classification of Occupations (CBO) is the first step for professionals and institutions to seek greater recognition and organization of the profession. The initial identification has classificatory purposes for administrative records, but cannot be confused with the regulation of the profession, which is always carried out by law in the National Congress.
The 19 new professions are: reiki therapist, yoga instructor, meditation instructor, biodance facilitator, movement group facilitator, land school driver, lactarian, toy driver, domestic dog handler, pet monitor, dog mobility instructor -guide, environmental and diversity biologist, health biologist, ergonomist, hydrojatist, ufologist, customer success analyst, customer experience analyst and wig maker.
Ufologist
Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and extraterrestrials have been populating the social imagination for some time. In addition to popular legends and fictional themes, they are a source of research for a group of people who call themselves ufologists. This is the case of Edison Boaventura Junior, 57 years old, who has worked on the subject for 42 years and publishes content on social media. Retired, he was a manager at Banco do Brasil throughout his life and, with his salary, paid for his studies in the field of ufology.
“My interest in UFOs arose in 1981, after seeing an unidentified flying object in Guarujá, on the coast of São Paulo. I was 14 years old, my mother and my younger brother witnessed the incident, as well as some neighbors. It was a very large orange object that released smaller objects underneath. I counted 16 objects. Until they disappeared at a rapid speed”, says Edison.
In 1985, Edison founded the Guarujá UFO group, which claims to research more than 600 cases, involving phenomena of sightings, lights, object landings and even direct contact with crew members. The expectation now is that, with the official recognition that ufology is a profession, there may be official salaries and jobs in the government, in intelligence or military areas, scientific centers and universities.
“An unprecedented event happening in Brazil. I don’t know of any other country in the world that has the ufologist code recognized as a profession. It is a national and international landmark. I believe that this initiative should be followed by other countries as well, which will use our example to systematize this in their work ministries”, analyzes Edison. “The second step is to systematize everything to define what a ufologist is. Do you need to have a higher education degree? Do I have to take a course? Will it be recognized by the MEC? If the person wrote a book or published a work in a specialized magazine?”
Biodance facilitator
One of the names that attracts the most attention in the new list of occupations is that of the biodance facilitator. It seems something newer and more unknown, but it is a practice that has existed since the 1960s. It was created by a Chilean psychologist and anthropologist, Rolando Toro, and brought to Brazil in the 1970s. Here, its main institution is the Association Brazilian Association of Biodanza Facilitators (Abraça), of which Wanderléia Aparecida Coelho is president.
“Biodanza integrates music, movement and group activities. The objective is for people to be able to recognize themselves dancing and, thus, walk more fully through the world. Every session, which lasts on average two hours or two and a half hours of work per week, enhances the individual’s awakenings. It’s not a marked choreography, it doesn’t have defined steps. What it has are stimuli through music, personal and group experiences, so that each individual can get to know themselves through their own movement”, explains Wanderléia.
According to the president of Abraça, biodanza integrates knowledge from various sciences. It begins with the idea of health promotion and goes deeper into other paths of human development and self-knowledge, within an existential journey.
Professionals who wish to become a biodance facilitator need to go through a demanding training process. The qualification lasts 4 years, with 400 hours of theory and practice. To start the course, it is mandatory that you have already participated in biodanza sessions and circles, and then follow the theoretical training stages, internships and monograph presentation. Once completed, it becomes a facilitator, an important concept for understanding the profession.
“It differs from being a teacher, because we assume that we are there to create conditions for an individual to develop. Facilitating processes, creating conditions. And not teaching, in the most conservative sense of the word. Teaching is someone offering knowledge for someone else to learn. Biodanza is based on the principle that this human potential already exists and the facilitator creates conditions to awaken the potentials”, says Wanderléia.
The trained professional can work in regular private groups, focused on the area of human development and health promotion. Or in the area of education, for the training of other facilitators. And even pass a public exam in some states and municipalities that offer vacancies for this specific training. ABRAÇA does not yet have a survey on the average salary in the category, but it is research that is on the horizon.
yoga instructor
A concept and practice that originates in India, yoga (or yoga) has been widespread throughout Brazil for a long time. It is easy to find a large number of practitioners and teachers on social media. One of these profiles is that of Satyla Leal, 30 years old, who has been giving virtual and in-person classes for four years. She already thought about becoming a physical educator, studied administration, worked as a saleswoman in a shopping mall, until she found her professional path in yoga. A profession that, compared to others, may seem less hectic, but requires a long time of dedication.
“My day starts at 4 am. It’s really early, so I can do my practice before I start teaching classes. At 6am, I have the first class, which is virtual. Then, around 7am, I teach a face-to-face class. Next, I do weight training to strengthen the body and the practice itself. And then comes taking care of the house and studying. In the afternoon, I have more private classes, which only end at 7pm”, says the teacher.
Satyla says that the profession requires a lot of physical and emotional involvement, and that a person interested in becoming a teacher needs to have discipline and be committed to the principles of yoga. Practice what you teach.
“Yoga means union. The objective of the practice is this integration of us with ourselves, with our essential pillars: the body, mind, spirit and their harmony so that we can move through life and all its challenges. Yoga will not solve problems, but it will bring you discipline for what needs to be done. Learning to work the mind not as an enemy, but as a tool. Learn to listen to your own heart”, says the teacher.
Toyist
Have you ever thought about being a professional paid to play and organize children’s games? The work of a toy worker involves a high dose of fun, but it is serious and requires specific training so that the person is able to deal with a busy daily work routine. The job market has options mainly in toy libraries at schools, hospitals and private companies.
“The toymaker is responsible for selecting the toy library’s collection. The toys and games that best serve the public, depending on the age and environment in which the children are located. A hospital toy library, for example, cannot have certain types of toys due to hygiene. The professional will organize the spaces inside the toy library so that they are attractive, so that children can interact inside. He teaches and encourages play. You can bring music or art projects. It also takes care of the cleaning and safety of the toy, if it needs maintenance and disposal. It has to welcome families. It’s no small feat”, explains Maria Célia Malta Campos, educational psychologist and president of the Brazilian Toy Library Association (ABBri).
The first toy library in the country was set up in 1981: Brinquedoteca Indianópolis, in São Paulo, with pedagogue Nylse Helena Silva Cunha as its director. ABBri was created in 1984 and has been in existence for 39 years. Today, anyone who wants to become a toymaker needs to take a free 40 or 50 hour course. A university degree is not required, just a high school diploma is enough.
Recognition in the Brazilian Classification of Occupations was important, according to toys enthusiasts, to avoid confusion with other types of activities, which have very different philosophies.
“We make a big difference between playing in the toy library and pedagogical playing aimed at teaching. For us, playing is free, creative, where the child communicates, expresses themselves, they are the center of the activity”, explains Maria Célia. “There is a solid basis to differentiate this professional from the educator and the entertainer. The entertainer leads and organizes play situations. He is the center of activity. And for us it’s the opposite. The center of the activity is the child.”
#Biodanza #UFOs #wigs #professions #work