Salons are being encouraged to sign up to a new Government-backed cervical screening campaign, launched by booking platform Treatwell in partnership with Public Health England (PHE).
The new initiative – the Life Saving Wax campaign – is designed to help salons encourage clients to go for cervical screening. It is part of Public Health England’s Cervical Screening Saves Lives campaign.
More than 400 salons have already committed to the scheme, which was launched off the back of research showing that while the number of women attending smear tests is at a 20-year low, the number who go to salons for intimate waxing is continuing to rise. The research, by Treatwell, revealed that between 2017 and 2018 there was an 84% increase in the number of bikini waxes.
Salons will receive posters and information cards to show to clients, as well as basic training on how to start conversations about the importance of cervical screening and where to refer clients who have any concerns.
Treatwell beauty director Liz Hambleton says: “We see thousands of women booking intimate waxes every day, so when we heard women aren’t attending a potentially life-saving test due to embarrassment, we wanted to see how we could change this. Beauticians are not health experts but they are human, and they speak to women all day every day about many personal topics… Just one conversation is all it could take to remind or encourage someone to go for their cervical screening. That one conversation could help stop cancer before it starts – it could save a life.”
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