This Braiding Course is Geared to Dads
Bonding over hairstyling isn’t just for mothers.
If you think back to your fondest childhood memories, you may think about the hours you spent bonding with your parents. The love and attention from both moms and dads can help kids grow and thrive.
Thanks to a hair-braiding course designed with dads in mind, fathers in St Albans, England, have one more way to shower their daughters with love and attention.
Sharing the load
John Hardern is a pensions advisor, reports the BBC. He is also the father of four daughters. When the pandemic shook up work schedules, Hardern found himself responsible for getting his girls out of the house in the morning.
He told the Washington Post that his wife would have to fix their daughters’ hair, before dad Hardern dropped them off at school. This didn’t make much sense to him. “It shouldn’t just be one gender doing stuff like this,” he explained. “The more we do and share the load, the better it is for my daughters.”
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Eager to “share the load,” Hardern was one of eight dads, who enrolled in the “Beers and Braids” hair-braiding class.
Beers and Braids
Annis Waugh, a St Albans resident, has a year of experience teaching parents how to braid hair. “I noticed that no men were booking,” Waugh realized. Waugh considered that fathers might feel uncomfortable joining her classes, since short-haired dads might not have the same level of knowledge regarding caring for longer hair.
With that in mind, when planning a hair-braiding course as a school fundraiser, Waugh marketed a “dad’s only course” where “everyone is in the same boat” as braiding beginners.
Initially, Waugh didn’t know how many dads would be interested in learning about hair-braiding. To her surprise, the course for fathers actually booked-up before the mothers’ hair-braiding course!
Tim Angove was one of the registrees. He told BBC that he “leapt at” the opportunity to learn how to plait his nine-year-old daughter’s hair.
Angove explained that before the course, his daughter "wouldn't let me anywhere near her hair.”
“I think more dads should do it," he shared. "It seems to be 100% women, but it's great for dads to have that involvement."
The first class
Knowing that some of the dads who enrolled in the course would be like Angove — rookie hair stylists — Waugh kicked off the course with the basics.
The Washington Post explained that the two-hour lesson started with an introduction on hair textures, brushing, and the basics of a ponytail.
The dads took the information really seriously Waugh remarked, “They were concentrating so hard. They were really into it and really wanted to do well at it…The concentration levels were through the roof,” Waugh shared.
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The men focused hard on learning how to style traditional and fishtail braids and an updo. Some were even perfectionists, brushing out perfectly good braids and restarting because “ there wasn’t enough tension at the top.”
Waugh knew the class was a success when four future hair-braiding lessons geared to fathers filled-up right away. “I’ve now got a waiting list of 45 dads…Every day, I get messages saying ‘Please teach me.’ I think it’s going to become a very regular fixture,” she shared.
Tim Angove certainly walked away as a satisfied customer. He told the BBC that styling his daughter’s hair was an important bonding experience “"It's just something I can do with my daughter and it doesn't matter about gender.”
His daughter loved it too! She was so excited that he knew “all about plaits.”
Angove summed up the experience, “"It is something we can share. I loved it."
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