Hair Stylists as Health Messengers

Heart of a woman is the institute’s salon-based health promotion program. Beauty salons make up nearly 20% of the businesses in the Central Brooklyn communities, where the AAIUH started its health promotion efforts. The team at the AAIUH has worked with more than 120 beauty salons since 1996 and has engaged these personal care establishments in its local community health empowerment work.

Hair salons hold special meaning among African-American women. Historically, beauty salons represent one of the few businesses black women in the United States could start and gain economic independence. In many ways, salons are like places of worship in communities; places of refuge and healing. To clients, salons represent a place where women can go to be pampered and cared for consistently. Although the salon setting is important to the delivery of health messages, the relationship between the customer and her stylist is a key factor. The salon stylist has always been considered a confidant. She has traditionally had a personal history of each of her clients, their significant others, including spouses and children. Since stylists generally stand 6-8 inches from a woman's ear, who is better suited to whisper some potentially lifesaving pearls of wisdom? Most black women have a regular source of hair care, but not medical care. In this program, the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health (AAIUH) has weaved health into the ongoing, traditional work of restoring and taking care of the beauty of the community.

INFORMATION FOR HEALTHY LIVING