Speak UP! Salon Project: Utilizing Hair Stylists to Deliver Health Education Messages about Reducing Unintended Pregnancy

The Speak UP! Salon Project was a lay health educator program run in 60 salons in nine Iowa counties from 2009-2011. Stylists were trained to deliver five messages related to reducing unintended pregnancies to female clients aged 18-30. Mirror clings, freebies, and brochures were developed to support stylists' message delivery. Cross-sectional data were collected annually via a web-based questionnaire (n = 83, 99, and 82, respectively). Results indicate that as the project became more institutionalized in the salons, clients and stylists became more engaged. Over time, clients were significantly more likely to report both seeing and picking up brochures about local family planning clinics. Significant increases were not found among clients noticing mirror clings or receiving a freebie from a stylist likely owing to high report at the outset (83%, 81.5%, and 86.5% reported noticing mirror clings and 78.5%, 83.1%, 91.4% reported receiving a freebie from their stylist). The number of clients who reported engaging in a discussion about birth control or unintended pregnancy with their stylist during their last salon visit trended higher over time (48%, 51%, 59%) but these differences were not significant. There was a significant increase over time in the number of clients reporting having talked with a health care provider about birth control info received at the salon. Discussion will include additional findings and suggestions for salon recruitment and types of salons best targeted for interventions.