Dallas, TX (WFN) -- Can a haircut help your health? It can if you go to Red Bird Corners Barber Shop in Dallas.

Red Bird is one of two local barbershops where the barbers are also blood pressure specialists trained to check their clients for hypertension while they're clipping their locks.

The extra service is part of a program started by the local UT Southwestern Medical Center, which aims to cut high blood pressure among African-American men -- who have the highest rates of untreated hypertension.

Medical staff have trained barbers to take blood pressure readings and identify which clients have problems so they can seek treatment.

Why barber shops? Well, UT Southwestern chief of hypertension Dr. Ron Victor says they're ideal spots for long-term blood pressure monitoring because folks go to them so frequently.

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