The “Hair Equity Project” launched in 2024 at the University of Vermont Medical Center to educate health professionals on hair textures, particularly focusing on Black women and other women with textured hair.The program was created to educate doctors and nurses on preserving hair during emergency medical procedures and provide products that are safe for Black people to use.”I would say a Black woman, your hair is essentially your identity. It’s very, very important for us because the first thing you often look at or people look at is our head and is important for us to keep our crown neat, clean,” said Pascale Onguende, a hair expert and stylist in South Burlington. “It’s self-love because hair plays such a big role into our everyday life that improves your confidence. It helps your mental health. It basically is an essential to everyday life. Hair look good … feel good.”With a year under its belt, the project at UVMMC is charting a path for inclusive care.Products specifically made to protect textured hair are available during overnight stays at the hospital and staff at the hospital are trained in the best practices to protect different hair types.”It just really felt like we were fighting an uphill battle. And when this program came around, it was kind of like a breath of fresh air,” said Mickey Richer, a UVM pediatric nurse.Richer used what she learned from the program during an emergency procedure for a child. If it weren’t for that knowledge, she said they probably would have had to cut the child’s hair away.”This was our best chance to give this extra care to this child,” said Richer. “We all gathered around the head of the bed, and we spent a solid couple of hours with the products that had been supplied by this arm of this initiative. And we were able to save a solid, like, 85% of this child’s hair. And the gratitude and tears that their mother had when they came back in because she couldn’t be in the room — she just — it was too much.”Onguende served as the hair expert for this project. She said for all health professionals involved, it was a steady learning process.”The caregiver and the patient have to be a team. So we all have to keep in mind that we are teaching each other. Nobody is more expert than another. So each person’s hair care may be different than the last patient. So both the caregiver and patient has to be a teacher and the student to each other,” she said. “It’s very important for the medical personnel to care for the hair just as much as they care for the patient health.”Thirty-three different products and 15 test participants, all with varying hair textures, helped to make this possible.The conversation at UVM is already expanding. The team is already exploring other forms of head coverings for under-represented groups.”What I really value through this process is that the hospital and those that were supporting this were putting those who are affected by it at the forefront, so it empowered those that have been affected by not having these products themselves to be able to make the decisions and to lead this project to where it needs to go instead of outsiders coming in and be like, ‘OK, this is what needs to happen,'” said Vanessa Rose, co-chair of the UVM Black Experience Council. “It really was led by BIPOC, and those with textured hair from mostly 3A to 4C curls and different hairstyles as well.”All products and training have been fully integrated into the hospital campus and are now being distributed across other affiliated locations.”What’s so great about this project is that it’s not one and done where it’s always going to evolve. And so our first step was to get the products out in the inpatient floors and to make sure that they’re available, but then to also recognize where else we can take this. So we have been talking with radiology for their outpatient needs, and we have been talking with other needs like emergency services and so, and surgery as well,” said Rose.
The “Hair Equity Project” launched in 2024 at the University of Vermont Medical Center to educate health professionals on hair textures, particularly focusing on Black women and other women with textured hair.
The program was created to educate doctors and nurses on preserving hair during emergency medical procedures and provide products that are safe for Black people to use.
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“I would say a Black woman, your hair is essentially your identity. It’s very, very important for us because the first thing you often look at or people look at is our head and is important for us to keep our crown neat, clean,” said Pascale Onguende, a hair expert and stylist in South Burlington. “It’s self-love because hair plays such a big role into our everyday life that improves your confidence. It helps your mental health. It basically is an essential to everyday life. Hair look good … feel good.”
With a year under its belt, the project at UVMMC is charting a path for inclusive care.
Products specifically made to protect textured hair are available during overnight stays at the hospital and staff at the hospital are trained in the best practices to protect different hair types.
“It just really felt like we were fighting an uphill battle. And when this program came around, it was kind of like a breath of fresh air,” said Mickey Richer, a UVM pediatric nurse.
Richer used what she learned from the program during an emergency procedure for a child. If it weren’t for that knowledge, she said they probably would have had to cut the child’s hair away.
“This was our best chance to give this extra care to this child,” said Richer. “We all gathered around the head of the bed, and we spent a solid couple of hours with the products that had been supplied by this arm of this initiative. And we were able to save a solid, like, 85% of this child’s hair. And the gratitude and tears that their mother had when they came back in because she couldn’t be in the room — she just — it was too much.”
Onguende served as the hair expert for this project. She said for all health professionals involved, it was a steady learning process.
“The caregiver and the patient have to be a team. So we all have to keep in mind that we are teaching each other. Nobody is more expert than another. So each person’s hair care may be different than the last patient. So both the caregiver and patient has to be a teacher and the student to each other,” she said. “It’s very important for the medical personnel to care for the hair just as much as they care for the patient health.”
Thirty-three different products and 15 test participants, all with varying hair textures, helped to make this possible.
The conversation at UVM is already expanding. The team is already exploring other forms of head coverings for under-represented groups.
“What I really value through this process is that the hospital and those that were supporting this were putting those who are affected by it at the forefront, so it empowered those that have been affected by not having these products themselves to be able to make the decisions and to lead this project to where it needs to go instead of outsiders coming in and be like, ‘OK, this is what needs to happen,'” said Vanessa Rose, co-chair of the UVM Black Experience Council. “It really was led by BIPOC, and those with textured hair from mostly 3A to 4C curls and different hairstyles as well.”
All products and training have been fully integrated into the hospital campus and are now being distributed across other affiliated locations.
“What’s so great about this project is that it’s not one and done where it’s always going to evolve. And so our first step was to get the products out in the inpatient floors and to make sure that they’re available, but then to also recognize where else we can take this. So we have been talking with radiology for their outpatient needs, and we have been talking with other needs like emergency services and so, and surgery as well,” said Rose.
