Greg Wickeherst was the dad in a viral story. In it, he as a single dad went to cosmetology school just to learn how to do his daughter’s hair. Now with his new expertise, he announces the winner of a contest he ran: the best hairstyle by a dad in 2015 (so far)!
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Back in February, the story of how I went to Cosmetology school to learn how to do my daughter’s hair went viral. If you are not familiar with it, I am an admissions representative at IntelliTec College of Pueblo. I am a single dad, and I have my 3 year old daughter full time. When her hair grew out, I didn’t know what to do. I have shaved my own head for 15 years now. I couldn’t really do a ponytail. I decided I needed to ask for help. My school has a Cosmetology department, so I asked the program supervisor for assistance. She set me up with one of the students, Ashley Rivera, and I spent an extended lunch hour learning how to braids, buns, and ponytails. I had no idea that hour and a half would change my life! I started putting some of my masterpieces onto my Facebook page. Here are some examples:
After about 6 months of making posts to this album, the Huffington Post saw this page and asked to do a story about me. The story was published on February 2nd. By February 6th I had already been invited to go onto the Rachel Ray show. My life has been a whirlwind every since!
I have been asked by countless numbers of people to do tutorials. I started a website, DadsGuidetoSurvivingHair.com. From there, I have tutorials and run contests. I also have my Facebook fan page, Greg Wickherst’s Dads Guide to Surviving Hair. I talk about fatherhood, being a parent, share pictures, and I promote the website and tutorials.
When my story went viral, I received thousands of messages, from all over the world. A lot were from dads that do their kids hair. When I decided to run a contest, I thought it would be great to share the spotlight with other good dads. See, I don’t think what I did was all that special. I saw an area where I needed help, and I did something about it. That’s what I believe all parents do. But the fact that it did go viral was great to me, because I am tired of seeing all of these negative stereotypes perpetuated by the media and advertising. When I see a dad doing well, I applaud it. And that’s why I chose to do my first contest. I know there are many dads that have great hairstyling skills. So after the entries were submitted, I picked the best five to choose from. I set it up on my website, and there was a poll where people could vote on who they thought was the best.
One entrant, David Engle, runs a daddy blog called Breaking Dad. He does a style of the day to show his hairstyle skills.
Another proud daddy, David Venn, posted a picture of a hair design he did for his girl, along with the outfit he created.
The winner below, with 56% of the vote, was Philippe Morgese. This man does salon quality hairstyles for his 8 year old daughter Emma.
I had a chat with Philippe and here are a few things I found out.
Philippe is a single father of 8 year old Emma. She is his only child and he says he loves the time they have when he’s doing her hair. It’s peaceful and they both enjoy seeing the outcome. Emma usually finds hairstyles on YouTube and asks if he will do them for her. He said that he’ll try them, although he fails at most attempts.
Taking care of Emma has always been important to Philippe. Having a close relationship is something he pursues. “It’s the one on one time that we often miss as we get older, so I’m really trying to live in the moment,” he stated.
When I asked him how he got started doing his daughter’s hair, Phillippe told me “I started learning ponytails and braids as soon as Emma’s hair was long enough. It was more for function then fashion. It kept her hair from becoming tangled which made overall maintenance very easy. I only have one child and I’ve been doing her hair since she was born. It started with hair clips until it was long enough to play with. The first style was the simple 3 strand braid, it is also my quick go-to style that I do when I’m in a rush.”
When asked what the hardest style for him to do was, I have to agree with him. “The hardest would be the French braid. I have tried a hundred times and I’m always disappointed in how sloppy it looks, but I’m still trying.”
Being a single dad that also does his daughter’s hair, I found that we have similar experiences. I wanted to find out what the reaction is that he gets when he is out in public with his daughter. He told me that when people see her hair, they usually compliment her and make comments like “Your mother did a fabulous job with your hair!” She always corrects them and says “My daddy did it.” Usually he gets a confused look with a pat on the back.
I agree with him more than anything when I asked him what he hopes his daughter gets from all of this. “I hope more than anything that Emma understands how much I love her.”
More from Greg on https://dadsguidetosurvivinghair.com/