Women chat with their hairstylists about a lot of things. But at 18 beauty parlors in Avondale and Bond Hill, a coalition of health agencies hopes that some of the talk will focus on brain attacks.

        The Cardiovascular Health Coalition of Hamilton County hopes to use beauty parlors as a new way to reach out to African-Americans, who suffer higher-than-average rates of death and disability from stroke.

        “We know a lot of people don't recognize the signs and symptoms of stroke. We know a lot of people still don't get treatments that can help because they don't know to come into the hospital right away,” said Rosie Miller, a clinical research coordinator for the University of Cincinnati Stroke Team.

        Beauty shop owners say they are glad to be involved.

        “There aren't really enough blacks who are into their health,” said Darlene Edwards, owner of Darlene's Beauty Salon, 3126 Reading Road.

        The countywide coalition includes five local health departments, the American Heart Association, the UC Stroke Team, and 11 other organizations. The coalition has picked six neighborhoods with high rates of heart disease and stroke to receive information campaigns: Avondale, Bond Hill, Lincoln Heights, Norwood, Springdale and Sharonville.

        The beauty parlor project, which began Saturday), will continue for about six weeks. The project includes distributing informational magazines and bro chures, showing videos at the beauty parlors, and conducting a customer survey to see if the effort improves awareness, Ms. Miller said.

        If it works, the beauty parlor concept may be expanded to other neighborhoods. If not, the coalition will try other methods, Ms. Miller said.

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