Barbershops and beauty salons aren’t always just for cutting hair in African American communities. They’re for catching up with all the latest news. Kids with straight A’s, new jobs, big weddings—as the owner of two salons I hear about it all.
One day my friend Rhonda came in with serious news.
“Five days after I gave birth, I felt this crushing pain in my chest,” she said. “The doctors thought it had to do with the pregnancy, but I knew different.”
She insisted on tests. Turned out Rhonda was having a heart attack.
Rhonda shares her story with every woman in the salon. “Heart disease is the number one killer of women in America,” she says.
She describes the risk factors they can’t change (family history, age, race) as well as those they can (high blood pressure or cholesterol, smoking, being overweight or physically inactive). She also quizzes us on the warning signs of a heart attack.
We love to talk at the beauty shop, but Rhonda’s information could save our lives. That’s the best news of all.
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