A Stylin' Community Partnership

One day, my husband shared an article he found on Reddit about a dad who taught other fathers how to style their daughters' hair.  

His comment: "I would love to learn how to do that."

I knew that I wasn't the most skilled at hair (embrace messy hair, for the win!) but I decided that this shouldn't stop me from trying to offer a class for our patrons!  I reached out to Clear Waters Salon and Day Spa, a local hair salon in Williams Bay, asking if they'd be interested in partnering for a hair how-to program.  Spoiler alert: they said yes.  

And How Do You 'Do was born.

We began marketing the program, both at the salon and in the library, making sure that both places were well-represented in the promotional materials and that our marketing campaign was universally used, both in person and on social media; we wanted folks to know right away what was going on and who was involved.

Next, we focused on what we'd need for the program itself.  It was decided that we would leave it open to anyone who wanted to attend, rather than making it exclusively for fathers/father figures.  In order to better plan, we asked for participants to register ahead of time, including both the parent and the child/children who would be in attendance.  Clear Waters was generous enough to donate both a handful of stylists and swag bags (those were a surprise!) for the event.  The library provided the space, the marketing materials, and additional essentials for the program: tables, chairs, manipulatives for the kids to use while they were helping with the tutorials, etc.

On the night of the program, the stylists came armed with a handful of ideas on what they could show, such as a basic French braid, the ever-popular Elsa braid, crowns, buns, and so forth.  The participants were also asked for specific style requests and were encouraged to record the sessions using their phones as they saw fit.

To add a bit of extra fun, one of the stylists also brought along some fun temporary hair colors for anyone who was interested. 
The kids loved heading home with rockin' mermaid/unicorn hair!

    

This program was so much fun!  Many of the patrons have requested we hold something like this again and, just recently, the salon expressed a similar wish - - so I certainly see more snazzy 'dos in our future.

One nice thing about this program is that it can be easily recreated, with or without the community partner, should you--or someone you know--be skilled at hair tutorials.  Phil Morgese and Emma, the father/daughter duo who inspired this whole idea, even have a Youtube series, if you'd rather do a video class!  Simply type in "dad hair school" on Youtube and voilà!  (Here's a link to a short video about the pair put together by 60 Second Docs)

Happy styling!