We sometimes underestimate our power — and privilege — as spa and salon professionals.
Take for instance, I heart-warming story I tweeted about last night: As part of a public health intervention study, barbers in an “intervention group” in Dallas of eight black-owned barbershops were trained to take customers’ blood pressure and offered patrons a free reading with each cut while telling them a model story about real people getting their blood pressure under control.
People may put off going to the doctor — but they are less likely to skip that grooming upkeep. When the readers were taken, customers with hypertension were advised to see their doctor or offered a referral if they didn’t have one — and if they hadn’t seen a physician by their next visit, the barber would even make an appointment for them and promise a free haircut as a reward if the customer went!
Gift with purchase.. it’s what always work for me too! Get this: Ten months later, 20 percent of the 602 men in the intervention group and 10 percent of the 695 men in the control group had controlled their blood pressure with medication. Men in the intervention group had their average blood pressure drop by about 2.5 millimeters of mercury (mm/Hg) more than those at the control shops.
Those barbers SAVED THOSE MEN’S LIVES.
It’s something each and every one of us could do in our own shops and salons and spas. And something we should keep in mind!
