April 21, 2022

"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...."

"Children will remember their dad doing their hair before school... I think if I can pass that on to a few more people, by way of a little braiding legacy, then I’ll be really happy."

Said Annis Waugh, quoted in "This hair-braiding class for dads is so popular there’s a wait list/‘Concentration levels were through the roof,’ said Annis Waugh about her students" (WaPo).

22 comments:

Readering said...

If Wapo using stories like this to lure subscribers on its free trial window it picked a good article.

AA maybe maximize Wapo stories while the trial lasts.

It surely didn't hurt for the dad's that the tutor appears to be young, comely, and lively.

rhhardin said...

Everybody made lanyards at camp when I was a kid. There's the three-strand kind and the four-strand kind, traidionally.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

My dad cut my hair when I was a kid.

Yeah, I know, he's not gay so STFU about it.

Josephbleau said...

Wire rope braiding is an engineering craft for all users of rope, I learned how to splice wire rope as a young summer miner in the underground uranium district of Grants NM. Bridges, Cranes, Ship unloaders, all can lace rope to optimum conditions.

reader said...

Hah! This was the plot device of a gushy romance book I read years ago.

Breezy said...

This is great. It’s no small thing to braid hair attached to a picky child….

tim maguire said...

For a follow up article, may I suggest a long complaint about how guys are celebrated for doing things women are just expected to do?

PM said...

Clifford Ashley approves.

David53 said...

I was a single Dad for almost 6 years. Two kids. I braided my daughter's hair everyday for school because I didn't have a clue about girl haircuts and it cost nothing except for my time. It was almost like mediating, forced me to focus but also relax. My granddaughters think it's cool I can braid. Whenever I see a woman with long hair I want to braid it. I can't see Althouse in braids though, maybe when she was 8.

gilbar said...

braiding is inherently good!
and, the Best Part Is: Once You've Learnt the Ropes.. It's All Pretty Easy

PB said...

JFC. Watch a Youtube video, get a few pieces of cotton rope, and practice for a bit. That's all it takes.

TickTock said...

I remember summer camp and lanyards. Definitely can still tie the three, probably can do the four strand if I tried.

walter said...

Sounds like a very important milestone in fatherhood.

walter said...

I mean, especially in shared custody of a daughter.

Bunkypotatohead said...

I used to work with a mechanical engineer with hair down to her ass. Whenever the job was about to get grimy, she could braid it in about 15 seconds without even using a mirror. It stayed out of the way thereafter.
I didn't get the impression her dad used to do it for her.

n.n said...

Everybody made lanyards at camp when I was a kid.

Dual-use skills, hair-braiding for dads, not novel, but memorable. WaPo publishing handmade tales... that is to say crafting stories with an ulterior motive.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I recall an argument between co-workers saying step dads should not do their step daughter’s hair.

Jamie said...

My sister and I used to do very complicated braid patterns of our own invention on one another in high school. Both of us can French braid our own hair (without a mirror), still. It's nice for dads to want to know how to do this for their girls.

Kevin Rogers said...

waiting for a class to learn to braid hair???? How clueless are those guys? People this is the 21st century! There is something called "youtube"!.I learned to braid my two daughters hair using it. Really easy and no waiting..

Lurker21 said...

One, they go to the class because they don't want to get sucked into watching internet videos all the time. Two, they aren't going to learn so much as to see that other guys are in the same position and to support them and be supported by them.

Using the internet or avoiding the internet is a complicated question today. Which option goes best with one's political convictions, or generational identity, or gender?

mikee said...

A curly haired daughter removed this issue from my life as a Dad. I hope yet for grandchildren with braidable hair.

mtp said...

Is this it? Have we found the one thing that everyone can agree on?
How can we start rebuilding society around this?