Walk into The Party Nail in early July, and you would have seen much more than buffed and polished toes, ready to take on the sidewalks of Mount Vernon.

The television mounted on the salon’s baby pink wall played informational vaccine videos on a loop. COVID-19 pamphlets were piled high on owner Victoria Gasparro's workstation. As Gasparro told her clients about her experience receiving a shot, she engaged them in a game of vaccine trivia, focused on busting myths they’d seen on social media.

“Coming from a professional that they tend to see on a biweekly basis, there’s this trust level that’s been established,” Gasparro said. “The fact that I was not hesitant, me sharing my firsthand experience of the shot, how I felt before-after-during. I think it definitely inspired my clients to go and get vaccinated.”

Gasparro was just one of more than 250 barbershop and salon owners across New York and New Jersey participating in Shots at the Shop—a team effort by stylists, White House officials, local health departments and public health researchers to address vaccine hesitancy in communities hit hard by the pandemic. The New York State Division of Licensing Services, which regulates dozens of occupations, advertised the program to its cosmetology and appearance enhancement licensees earlier this summer.

For more, click "listen" in the player and head to Gothamist.