Your Barber Matters, Too.

This isn’t the first - and won’t be the last - time I’ll say it.

Have the right people in your life and it goes better.

The information or help they provide will be there when you need it.

This was demonstrated again in recent study of non-Hispanic Black men with hypertension in LA County. Researchers recruited 52 barbershops and assigned them to one of two groups.

In the control group, barbers encouraged patrons to seek hypertension care from a primary care clinician and lead a healthy lifestyle. Patrons in this group saw a small reduction in blood pressure.

In the intervention group, they encouraged patrons to seek care from an American Society of Hypertension-certified pharmacist. Far more of the men in this group experienced a far greater reduction in blood pressure.

Better yet, not only were these results achieved at six months, but even with fewer pharmacist visits over the following six months, those positive results were sustained.

WOW! Barbers supporting the health of their patrons!

Better yet, we know that when barbers help connect patrons to health care professionals who can have an even greater, sustainable impact.

Better control of blood pressure will help them live a longer, healthier life and avoid the unemployment, disability and economic losses hypertension can cause.

This will, no doubt, will ripple-through their other networks.These men will be there for those they love in their family network, will be able to support others in their social and community network and will better thrive within their career network.

Even after a decade of study, I’m still in awe of how amazingly networks and connections can work.

So yes, as NetworkSages now know, having the right barber matters!