The time-honored tradition of chatting away in a hair stylist’s chair is often seen as therapeutic, but Cumberland County health officials have launched a program aimed at making that tradition potentially lifesaving, too.
Carlotta Winston is a public health educator who oversees the Cumberland County Dept. of Public Health’s “Healthy Conversations” project, which was introduced to local salons in February.
“Commissioner [Glenn] Adams had the vision to bring this program to Cumberland County,” Winston told CityView. “He saw this program being implemented in another county, and once he saw the health rankings in Cumberland County, specifically around prostate cancer, colorectal cancer and heart health … he wanted to bring it here.”
The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners voted last year to use $134,601 in health department funding to approve a three-year pilot program. According to a county news release, Adams proposed the project to his colleagues after seeing a similar program in Halifax County featured on the “NC Impact” television program on PBS.
“I believe this will be a game changer for health outcomes in our community,” Adams said.
How does it work?
The 10 participating shops send their stylists to undergo free training from the health department about relevant health topics to Cumberland County residents, Winston said. Participants learn what data shows about residents’ health and participate in interactive “teachback” sessions to ensure they’re comfortable with the topics at hand.
“We are planning to do a CPR certification course for them so that they can be trained in that should an issue arise while they’re in their shop,” she said.
Barbers and stylists will participate in multiple training sessions throughout the year, and program coordinators will incorporate feedback received from participants and their clients, Winston said.
To gauge the success of the program, stylists will ask their clients to fill out a 10-question survey each time they have a health-related conversation, according to Winston.
“It’s going through the topics that they had conversations around during their visit with the barber or stylist,” she said. “It includes any health behaviors that they would like to change, and then it also questions which health behaviors they have changed.”
Results thus far have shown a significant impact, Winston said.
“What we’re finding from the input from the clients is a lot of them have decided to become better advocates of health for themselves,” she said. “A lot of them have reported taking their blood pressure medication when they were once not taking it like they should, checking their blood pressure more frequently. Some have reported stopping alcohol use and tobacco use because of the program.”
Why at the hair salon?
Airaina Griffith-Knight, a board-certified cosmetologist, trichologist (a scalp and hair specialist), and site coordinator for the program, said hair stylists have a unique role in clients’ lives that enables conversations around health.
“We try to make clients understand the relationship between the hair and the body,” she said. “When you have disparities within the hair, it is because there’s something off-balance within your body. Your body is not in homeostasis.”
Because of the Healthy Conversations program, Griffith-Knight said, she now has the tools to ask clients different questions or provide suggestions based on what their hair indicates about their health.
“If I’m finding that the hair is lacking oxygen, I can ask them, ‘When was the last time you had a physical? Do you suffer with these types of things?’” she said. “While we’re working, they tend to think about it and they’re like, ‘I never thought that it would affect my hair.’”
Because health care may not be easily accessible to all due to transportation issues, lack of insurance or simple fear of the doctor, barber shops and hair salons provide a more comfortable environment to discuss health, Winston said. For example, in March, the program provided infused water as part of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month to all participating salons so clients might consider a healthier drink option over sugary, carbonated drinks.
“That was something that made me realize these communities are getting exposure to healthier options,” she said. “That, in turn, is impactful when you’re exposing someone to something they may not have ever had access to.”
Sheena Butler, a public health educator supervisor with the department, said the program also allows participants to refer clients to other options when an issue may be out of their scope of knowledge. Through the program NCCare360, stylists can find partners like the Cumberland County Dept. of Social Services or the Partnership for Children of Cumberland County, Butler said.
“Anybody that may be a partner with NCCare360, we’re able to refer them [to] and try to be that bridge in the gap for any kind of healthcare access,” she said.
And though the program has no current plans for expansion, Butler said those behind Healthy Conversations hope it will normalize discussing health outside of traditional medical settings.
“That is our hope, that we will see Healthy Conversations not just live for a moment in time, but be something continuous,” she said.
Reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com or 910-423-6500.
This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501c3 charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.
