DiAna DiAna

DiAna DiAna is an American hairdresser and HIV/AIDS activist from Columbia, South Carolina. Her work in the field of HIV/AIDS and basic sex education was featured in the 1989 documentary film Diana's Hair Ego.

Career Troubled about the lack of sex education and HIV prevention within African-American communities, DiAna began distributing condoms free of charge from her salon. When she noticed that the women were reluctant to carry these condoms home with them, she "decided to wrap the condoms up in gift wrap as a means of destigmatizing the process." in local elementary schools, and engaged high school students to become community leaders. DiAna's activism was instrumental in the development of beauty locations as sites of HIV outreach and education across the United States. SCAEN has been praised for its "creative strategies and nonjudgmental concern" in its grassroots campaign against the spread of HIV. The group estimates that it has provided one-to-one information on HIV to over 9,000 people in South Carolina. In addition to face-to-face activism, DiAna, Bambi, and other volunteers for SCAEN created informational videos, music, pamphlets, and colouring books to distribute statewide, accessible to children and adults with low or little reading ability.