Doris Frazier came to Cheryl Brown Johnsons beauty salon for a haircut and left with a lesson that could save her life someday. Johnson is a breast cancer awareness teacher in a groundbreaking health education campaign for black women. She and the seven other salon owners in the program are taking advantage of the intimate conversations women have in salons to educate their clients about breast cancer.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that 101 of every 100,000 black women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992. Although that's about as often as white women have breast cancer, black women are 50 percent more likely to die because they are less likely to receive health education and screenings that result in early detection and treatment, the CDC said. Among the brushes, combs and scissors soaking in chlorine at Lady Cheryl's Coiffeurs are posters, pamphlets and notebooks on breast cancer that patrons can thumb through. Their presence often prompts women to ask about them and the conversation takes off.

"A beauty shop is good because we have all kinds of conversations about everything and anything," said Yvonne Turner, a client of Johnson's for 19 years. "Everyone participates." Georgia Robbins Sadler, director of community outreach for the University of California San Diego Cancer Center, trained eight local beauticians to talk with their customers about breast cancer. Over the next three years, she will expand it to 20 San Diego-area salons. The project evolved through her work with black church leaders. They figured salons provided the kind of non-threatening environment that would encourage women to talk about the personal subject. "You listen, but don't judge," Johnson said. "It's like a bar. You lend a sympathetic ear. I always thought cosmetology was about more than doing hair."

Some customers, who might be single parents or part of a struggling two-parent family, cannot afford medical insurance and don't know where to go for free mammograms, Sadler said. With training, Johnson and her colleagues are able to answer their patrons' questions in a professional manner without guessing at answers. So far, no one has criticized them for trying to conduct the work of medical experts, Sadler said.

The beauticians' communications skills were enhanced by professional storyteller and registered nurse Alyce Smith Cooper, who taught the women to tell personal stories rather than preaching. "I work at getting them to learn to tell a story quickly, keep people interested and pass on important information," Smith Cooper said. "People would rather listen to a story, which is much more appealing than dry facts that may be very frightening." Sadler hopes the teaching model can be expanded to other subjects, such as domestic violence and early immunization of children.