Document Type
Dissertation
Publication Date
4-23-2025
Abstract
Date: 04/23/2025
Student Name: Alexcia Bryant
Capstone Project Title: Advocacy in Action: Advancing Inclusive Hair Care Practices in Acute Rehabilitation Settings
Capstone Faculty Advisor: Dr. Shanteria Watson
Abstract:
Purpose: The overall goal of this capstone project is to support OTs acquiring knowledge and practical strategies to support the hair care needs of Black and African American patients through a culturally responsive training and an assessment tool that summarizes how to address these needs through the OT process.
Background and Significance: As the occupational therapist creates the client centered intervention plan regarding hair care, they must be knowledgeable of the tactics and use appropriate products used to evaluate and enhance occupational performance successfully. Therefore, OTs should understand that: African hair is curly and more susceptible to damage regarding mechanical fragility (Bosely & Daveluv 2015), learning about hair care for various hair types supports bathing and grooming occupations (Johnon et., al, 2022), racism and a lack of culturally appropriate and culturally competent services negatively impact mental health within black communities and descendants of Black Africans use hairstyles to express identity (Lashley, 2020).
Statement of the Problem: When offering hair grooming services as part of acute care rehabilitation, hospitals do not offer the proper products needed to manage the different textures of African American/Black hair.
Research Design: The Culturally Responsive Education conceptual framework is used in the in this project to promote advocacy regarding inclusive hair care practices.
Methods: To achieve this, the development of an advocacy in-service training highlighting the proper products to successfully complete hair grooming tasks and potential solutions to address the inequities of providing generic grooming kits to the African American community was provided. Additionally, an assessment was developed as a client-centered occupational profile tool that measures cultural considerations, knowledge, and preferred hairstyles and appropriate tools regarding hair care within the African American population or descendants of the African Diaspora.
Results: The in-service presentation and occupational profile assessment tools examines the need for diverse education to enhance inclusive hair care provision in acute care rehabilitation settings. This project identified how diverse and inclusive education yield practical strategies for advocacy regarding the protocols of acute-care rehabilitation centers for providing equitable hair grooming tools/products for African American hair textures.
Discussion: Based on this project, it is evident this education and practical advocacy strategies need to be addressed in both educational and clinical settings to provide equitable hair care ADL interventions.
Conclusion: Advocacy through training and assessment tools increase awareness and provide tangible skills to implement inclusive hair care practices in acute rehabilitation settings.
Recommended Citation
Bryant, Alexcia and Watson, Shanteria, "Advocacy in Action: Advancing Inclusive Hair Care Practices in Acute Rehabilitation Settings" (2025). Howard University, Department of Occupational Therapy Capstone and Faculty Research. 17.
https://dh.howard.edu/huotresearch/17
