CAUSE AND EFFECT: L’Oréal launched its annual Hairdressers Against AIDS program with a rocking cocktail in Paris on Monday, World AIDS Day.
“This is a program of prevention,” said An Verhulst-Santos, general manager of L’Oréal’s Professional Products Division. “When one is a hairstylist, one has a voice” that must be used, she continued. “Dialogue and prevention are essential in the fight against the virus.”
Starting Monday, hairdressers in thousands of salons began discussing AIDS prevention with clients, said Vincent Mercier, managing director of L’Oréal’s Professional Products Division France. Durex contributed 60,000 condoms to the cause.
It is the 13th year the L’Oréal Foundation and UNESCO have sponsored the program, which is deployed in more than 37 countries on five continents. Since its creation, it has involved more than 1.5 million hairstylists, according to Verhulst-Santos.
The slogan of this year’s Hairdressers Against AIDS is: You can change what you have on your head, but the most important is to change what’s inside it.
Attendees at the fete included the program’s two spokesmen, Jérôme Guézou, L’Oréal Professionnel’s ambassador hairdresser, and DJ Bob Sinclar, who also started mixing music to the delight of attendees. Simultaneously on stage, embellishing touches were being made to a gravity-defying, ornate chignon.