Earlier this week, Nashville beauty and barbershop owners joined forces with the Shears United HIV Prevention Project to participate in the national Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS. Hair salons provide a place for African Americans to find out what is going on in their community and lend well to prevention efforts, said Shears United Program Coordinator Mary Owens. But the effort is a hard sell for many beauticians, salon owners and pastors. With more than 200 black churches in Nashville, and perhaps even more beauty and barber shops, few are part of either the black church week or the Shears Program. But Rev. Donald Smith of the First Response Center, an HIV prevention program at the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church -- which is hosting the week of prayer -- said that hesitance is changing among pastors and barbers, "because of a realization that their memberships can certainly be affected or infected."

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