AUBURN – Bundles of purple emery boards were piled on a table at the back of the room bearing the number: “1-866-83-4HELP.”

That’s the phone number of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence.

The advocacy group is hoping that hair salon workers will make the nail files available to their customers in hopes that victims of domestic violence who frequent those salons will call that number as a first step to seeking safety from an abusive relationship.

Local salon workers spent three hours in the basement of the Auburn Public Library on Monday morning learning how to spot signs of domestic violence and what to do about it.

They were urged to take a handful of the printed nail files, as well as informational stickers, back to their work places so their clients would know how to get help.

Since last summer, the nonprofit group has been holding workshops titled “Maine Salons Cut Out Domestic Violence” with hair stylists and other cosmetologists, along with professionals sought largely by women, including massage therapists, said Kelley Glidden, community educator at the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project in Auburn. Glidden headed up Monday’s conference.

The conference was funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, she said.

Glidden said the nail files and stickers could be kept in a bathroom where clients could access them easily without being seen by others.

Victims of domestic violence typically will try seven or eight times to get out of a relationship before they succeed, Glidden said. Sometimes, they can’t leave because of children, threats against other family members and pets, lack of money and a host of other reasons, she said. For that reason, it’s important to let the victim control the timing of their flight and not pressure them, she said.

Offering to listen and providing information is often the best course of action for a worker taken into the confidence of a client, Glidden said.

Sometimes it’s easy to spot a relationship where the man is controlling the woman, said Carol Palleschi, salon manager at JC Penney in Auburn.

One time a man stood next to a customer at her salon and told the hairstylist how he wanted her client’s hair cut. The woman never said a word, Palleschi said.

Another customer asked how long various procedures would take then later confided she was being timed by her husband, who also monitored the mileage on her car.

The man, the salon worker later learned, was a state trooper.

“I thought, Oh, my God, what would a woman do in a case like that?” Palleschi said.

Several Auburn police officers fielded questions like that Monday. Other law enforcement agencies can investigate such a complaint, they said. Police treat the crime of domestic violence seriously, they said.

They also reviewed for the salon workers the process victims can take in getting a protection-from-abuse order against an abuser. Once that order is in place, police can enforce it and arrest the abuser if he violates the order.

Most of the salon workers said they have or had clients who likely are victims of some form of domestic violence, including physical, emotional or sexual abuse.

Because salon workers are not required to report suspected abuse to authorities, they often can be trusted where other professionals are not, said Tammy Deraps, who works as a stylist at Madison Avenue Salon in Auburn.

It’s also important to keep one’s voice down when discussing such a confidential subject, Deraps said, noting salons tend to be loud, chatty places and an abuser’s family member or friend might be in the next chair.