Hairdressers can offer a little-off-the-top trim, a fresh, new look, and sometimes even a sympathetic ear. But new research shows they can do even more than that, spotting possibly life-threatening skin cancer that others might not even notice.
Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in Canada and melanoma is by far the most dangerous. More than 5,000 Canadians are diagnosed with melanoma every year, and 900 people a year die from it. The prognosis for melanoma that has spread to other organs is poor, which is why spotting it early is key.
Because hairstylists spend so much time looking at their clients鈥� scalps and necks, they are usually trained on how to spot unusual moles and marks. But research has shown that many could often use a refresher.
Now, finds that a short online video can be all that鈥檚 needed to turn hairdressers into front-line melanoma spotters.
In the research letter, dermatologists asked 100 hairdressers in the Los Angeles area to watch that explained how to spot melanoma lesions. The video explained the so-called 鈥淎BCDE criteria鈥� that are used by dermatologists to spot melanomas. The criteria stands for: Asymmetry in size; irregular Borders; more than one Colour; lesion size larger than 6 mm in Diameter; and Elevation above the skin.
The researchers measured the hairdressers鈥� knowledge of melanoma before and after watching the video. They found that before the video, 59 per cent of the hairdressers could accurately identify suspicious moles or lesions using the ABCDE criteria. Afterward, 71 per cent could do so.
As well, only 19 per cent of the hairdressers said they felt 鈥渧ery confident鈥� about screening for melanoma before watching the video, but after the video, that doubled to 41 per cent.
Alexis Rushlow has been a professional hairstylist in the Toronto area for the past two years and she's well aware that she has a view into her clients' health that few others have. While she says she鈥檚 never spotted skin cancer on a client, she has noticed things like psoriasis that her clients didn鈥檛 know they had.
鈥淎nd my colleague has found on one of her guests a mole that looked suspicious and told her to get it looked at and it turned out to be cancerous,鈥� Rushlow told CTV Toronto.
She says the close relationship between hairdressers and their regular clients is ideal for them to keep an eye on changes in moles.
鈥淲e're half hairstylist, half therapist. So we're always talking about personal things that you normally wouldn't talk about with people,鈥� she says.
The JAMA authors note that half of all melanomas go undetected by self-inspection. And the head and neck, which get a lot of sunlight exposure, are the most common areas where melanomas are missed.
With only 100 hairdressers surveyed, the JAMA study was not a large one. All the participants had volunteered to take part and were already interested in increasing their melanoma knowledge, which may not typify all hairdressers. As well, it鈥檚 unclear how long hairdressers would hang on to their newfound knowledge.
"More research is needed to determine if such knowledge and self-efficacy gains are maintained over longer periods of time and against an active control condition in a randomized controlled trial," the researchers write.
But they add that their experiment shows that training hairdressers to spot worrisome moles could be one more way to add to hairdressers鈥� skin cancer knowledge.
"Based on our initial testing of an educational video intervention, training hairdressers in melanoma screening and referral seems to be a promising avenue for future research."
With a report from CTV Toronto鈥檚 Pauline Chan
