Tucked in a row of storefronts on South Street in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, Miss Laura’s has the welcoming feel of an old fashioned beauty parlor.   There’s a steady stream of conversation and, lately, it’s mostly political.

“How can you not talk about what’s going on at this time in our history,” asked Mary Wallace, a local real estate agent.

She’s here for a haircut and what she calls her therapy session with salon owner, Laura Dembski.   Since Donald Trump became president, Wallace has become an activist.  She’s not alone.  In liberal leaning Jamaica Plain many of Dembski’s customers are opposed to the new president’s agenda and she’s noticed a trend.  Women working to change the country’s political direction are also making a more immediate change:  they’re cutting their hair.

“We cut off at least 10, 12 to 20 women’s hair super short and all of them said they needed to feel different, needed to feel empowered,” said Dembski.  She’s run this shop for 30 years, but has never before seen customers seeking a haircut as a political statement.  “That’s why it caught our ear, because it’s something different.”

Deep concern when a new party takes control of the White House is nothing new.  Republicans say they felt some of the same outrage protestors do now when Barak Obama took over from George W. Bush. 

Yet, in more than a decade as the pastor at Christ Church in Waltham, Reverend Sara Irwin says she’s never experienced an election – or any other event – that has provoked such a deep reaction among her parishioners.  

“I hear people have a hard time sleeping.   They clench their hands, they grind their teeth,” said Irwin.  “People are really feeling their politics in a way that is much more emotional than it is intellectual.”

In the age of Trump, church attendance here is robust.  Irwin says many of her parishioners are wrestling with a question.

“How can I be part of something that’s working for the good in this world,” said Irwin, “when what the Trump administration represents is so contrary to many people’s Christian values?”

Irwin may not support the new president, but she says his supporters are welcome in her church.  She points out people often disagree with their pastors.

“The hope is to be able create a context where people can thrive together even if they’re not the same,” said Irwin.  “I think it’s a real witness and resistance to say we’re not going to be divided.”

Overcoming those divisions will not be easy.  At Samara yoga in Somerville’s Davis Square, teacher Jade Sylvan says many of her students feel targeted by President Trump’s policies.  If not quite relief, Sylvan hopes to offer them refuge.

“People can be quiet,” said Sylvan, “and find this sense of – even if its brief – a sense of stability within themselves in the midst of the chaos.”