After more than two decades of working as a prostitute in Mexico City, Esperanza Escobar found salvation in a most unexpected place.
She regularly visited a hair salon in the heart of La Merced, the city's tough red light district, where she would take a break from days when she might have as many as 60 clients wanting sex.
The hair salon, which treated women like Escobar kindly and keeps them coming back with rock-bottom prices, is in fact a front for a charitable operation aimed at rescuing sex workers and giving them the chance at new lives . . .
