UK salons offering free facials to clients who attend smear test

Beauty salons across the UK have joined a movement to incentivise more women to book in for their cervical screening test by offering a free facial if they do. 

The campaign, which is using the hashtag #Fannies4Facials on social media, was started by Steph Fox of Liverpool salon Every Body Massage earlier this month and has since been picked up by salons across the UK, including Rochdale salons A Little Day Spa and The Salon, Isle of Wight salon Zen Beauty and Hair, and Topaz Nails and Beauty in Burton upon Trent.

Reacting to the news that the number of women booking in for a smear test has dropped to its lowest level in 20 years, the salons are offering a free 30-minute facial in exchange for proof that the client has attended their test.

The campaign is running until the end of February and to claim the facial, the salons need to see a letter from the client's doctor or text message proof of the appointment.

Fox said, "I’ve made this my personal mission, to get as many woman as I can to have their smears done....I don’t care if I end up doing 1,000 of these, if a 1,000 women in Liverpool go for a smear. I don’t care, it will be worth every hour and penny to me. Spread the word girls; you never know, we could save a life here."

The cervical screening test is a method of detecting abnormal cells on the cervix and according to the NHS, around 3,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK.