The role of hairdressers in female condom programming

1. The role of hairdressers in female condom programming UAFC Project- Cameroon Washington , 26th July 2012

2. Choice Justification: community involvment • Most women visit a hair salon at least once a month • About 30 minutes to an hour is spent in the salon at each visit • Once they are satisfied with their hair style, women come back to the same salon • Good relationship and friendship are established between clients and hair dresser, which makes discussions on sensitive issues a possibility • Recruitment of community leaders, who are part of the geographical area of the hair saloon and share the same native language

3. Choice Justification: community involvement • Most hairdressers are part of women’ groups and they usually take female condom to activities in which the participate within their community • The hair salon is usually the place where women meet during weekends to chat and make friends while styling their hair. • Hair salons are the ideal setting to bring female condom closer to the population, track users and address difficulties they face in using female condom

4. Strategies in working with hairdressers Training • Ongoing formal training of hair dressers One on one communications • Condom benefits/Demonstrations on correct use/ negotiation techniques Merchandising • Product and promo material visible and well displayed in the hair saloon Monitoring • Regular supervisions of hairdressers by community animators Linking and learning • Quarterly meetings in each region of the project

5. Results • 10 community animators recruited • 156 hairdressing salons involved • 453 peer educators from hairdressing salons trained (449 hairdressers, 4 barbers) • More than 450 000 female condoms sold through this channel in 2 years

6. Strengths • Highly motivated and passionate about female condom • Most hairdressers speak from experience • Activity generating additional incomes for most hairdressers • Important for Interpersonal Communication and for immediate feedback • Hairdressers have a high capacity of community mobilization

7. Weaknesses • High mobility of hairdressers • Less educated, which makes it difficult to write reports correctly • Challenges in maintaining balance between scale up and quality

8. Lessons learnt • Identification of hairdressers takes time and needs to be done very early • Recruitment of community animators helps in permanent follow up and regain of motivation from hairdressers • Training of saloon owners helps maintain activities even when employees resign • Barbers involvement improves FC acceptance by men • Communicating through hairdressers helps to demystify female condom within the community

9. Thank you