Haircut, highlights and safe sex tips in Havana

Sex, cheating husbands, AIDS … That’s the talk at Havana’s Aphrodite Beauty Parlor and it’s enough to curl your hair.

The salon — located in Cerro, a dense urban district with the fourth-highest incidence of HIV infection on the island — is really a store-front health center in disguise.

Hairdresser Leticia Santa Cruz, 43, came up with the idea. She wanted a sure-fire way of reaching middle-aged married women, a vulnerable sector of Cuban society and a group frequently overlooked by AIDS educators.

Santa Cruz has cut hair in this neighborhood for 17 years and, after losing a dear friend to AIDS, began work as a community AIDS activist for almost the same stretch of time. “I’ve heard a million stories from my clients,” she said. Read more