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Hair salons may offer a safe community space to engage young women and address barriers related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). In settings such as Lesotho (Southern Africa), where young women face enormous SRH challenges, innovative and accessible spaces besides traditional health facility settings are urgently needed. HIV- and pregnancy-related complications are still the leading cause of death among young women in high HIV prevalence settings in sub-Saharan Africa. While the needs may be different in Switzerland, Black hair salons may likewise offer a unique venue to address key health issues.
However, no data exists from Lesotho nor Switzerland. The project planned a cross-sectional survey – designed together with citizen scientists – in Lesotho and smaller survey in Switzerland to gather data on offering SRH services in hair salons.
The project team aimed to assess acceptability and feasibility of promoting SRH services (e.g., family planning, HIV/STI prevention) in hair salons, explore the role of stylists, and compare the findings, including the citizen scientist approach itself, between the two settings. Follow-up plans include a multi-country cluster-randomized trial.
The project applied a Citizen Science, co-created project approach. Two lead citizen scientists (Black hair salon experts) were part of the research team, a citizen scientist working group was regularly consulted, and the ca. 100 individual citizen scientists (hair salon stylists) have collected the main data in a decentralized manner.
