Bring the Hair Salon to School

Me after the transformation, Nicole and Alex

Last Monday, March 4, 2019 I had two special guests come to my school. Nicole is my hair stylist, and her friend Alex is a videographer. The purpose of their visit was to colour and cut my hair in front of several groups of students, as part of the students' media studies about hair.

Neither Nicole nor Alex are certified teachers, and they don't do school visits, but both of them did a phenomenal job of answering the students' questions, explaining the process in an understandable way, and keeping the students interested. I was really grateful that Alex was there to record the whole procedure. It's hard to take photos when you are the one having things done to you! Plus, while Nicole and I were washing the dye out in the sink, Alex took the time to explain what he was doing while capturing it all, from different angles and with specific shots.

Nicole's "tool kit"

 Nicki has been my hair stylist for a very long time, and I trust her with my hair because she's incredibly talented. There have been many times in the past where I've seated myself in her chair and told her to do whatever she wanted. This was the case with my "hair salon at school" session.

I've allowed my students in the past to vote on what colours they'd like me to dye my hair and I've complied. It's not that radical of a concept. Hair colour, unlike tattoos, isn't permanent. Hair can grow out, and when you have an expert like Nicki behind the bottle, chances are that even the most outrageous colour choice will turn out. (The exception was when I tried to dye my hair at home on my own using Kool Aid. Thankfully, Nicki was around to fix the disaster the next day.) I've had blue hair, red hair, brown hair, blonde hair, pink hair, purple hair, black hair and silver hair, as well as some colour combinations. The one colour I haven't done is green, and that's at the request of my long-suffering husband. He asked for no green because he doesn't want me "to look like a super-villain". This actually made for a good class discussion about how hair communicates messages.

It's been actually quite a while since I last coloured my hair.  (I checked photos, and it looks like it was the summer of 2018.) I'm surprised I've lasted this long. Usually I get bored with my current hair colour and ask for a change. I've been comfortable with my silver and white locks, despite the implied, stereotypical message that my hair suggests, that I'm "old". Changing it again, for the sake of student learning, was an easy choice.

Showing dye

I didn't give the students a choice this time on what my new hair colour would be. Part of the reason was because I didn't have time to survey all the students. Part of the reason was, despite all our conversations about how hair communicates certain messages, many young students were enamoured with the idea of my having rainbow coloured hair. I think one of the (many) things that they learned with Nicki's visit is that changing your hair colour takes a LONG time.

Close-up views of the 

Nicki decided that she would colour my entire head purple, then pull out several strands at the front, bleach them so they'd hold the colour more - this was one of the many science-related things the students and I learned about hair from Nicki - and then colour those strands pink. We began at about 1:00 pm with the Grade 3 class, continued with the Grade 5-6 students watching, and ended at 3:00 pm after a post-recess visit from the Grade 1 class and a period with the Grade 1-2 class. Some of the other classes were disappointed that they did not get a chance to see the transformation in person and asked if I'd be dyeing my hair again in a couple of weeks. I explained that it wouldn't be healthy for my hair and that, thanks to Alex, they'd get to see a video compilation of the process. I didn't expect for them to make an educational video, but I'm so glad that that's the plan.

Some of the things we learned included the role of melanin and pigment in hair colour. Nicki explained why white / grey hair loses its colour and how it often needs to be treated so that it will "accept" artificial colours. She talked about the role of oxygen and heat in changing hair colour. She mixed chemicals like peroxide and dye in front of them (safely, I promise!) and gave students a close-up view of the cap she used on me to separate the hair so she could bleach strands.

She answered a lot of questions about how she learned to be a stylist. This was a great opportunity for my students to hear about other career paths. So many of our students are pushed to study at university and we don't always emphasize the trades enough. Working as a tricologist / cosmetologist / hair stylist is truly a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) profession. Nicki showed them how she measured with her fingers while cutting and this was real-life math in action. Mixing chemicals is hands-on science.

Photo I shared on Twitter of the talk

I think Nicki and Alex were equally as impressed with our students as they were of them. One of my students asked about "ombre" hair and a Grade 1 boyknew how bleach worked. An older student asked about a Japanese chemical technique for curling or straightening hair (I can't recall which) and asked for Nicki's opinion on the process. One student described the scent of one of the chemicals as "like watermelon" and we had to agree with that unexpected observation. Despite one of my Grade 2s yelling "This is boring" (which he does in class regularly, so this wasn't a surprise), all of the students really were captivated. I can hardly wait to share the video that Alex makes (which itself will be a perfect media learning opportunity, to see how over two hours of filming gets pruned and edited to be a much shorter, more shaped experience).

Until the final video is ready and available to be shared, watch this short Facebook video of Nicki and Alex's reaction to their visit.

https://www.facebook.com/wikid.nikki/videos/10156081394073730/?t=3

If you'd like to hire Alex or Nicki, follow:

• @labmediacompany on Instagram for Alex's photography and cinematography services
• @komotria.official on Facebook for Nicki's hair salon services
• @komotria_official on Instagram for Nicki's hair salon services