Inside the mad world of Canada’s hair-freezing competition
Inside the mad world of Canada’s hair-freezing competition
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Sub-20C temperatures usually call for a beanie to avoid a frozen barnet – but not in Canada. Damien Gabet travelled into the wilderness to wet his tresses and let the frost style an up-do worthy of the Yukon’s International Hair Freezing Contest. There was once a band called Static-X. Their late lead singer, Wayne Static, had the most remarkable shock of hair. Long, hellraising spikes, straighter than a razor blade. As a rock-loving teen, I would use GHDs (or my mum’s iron) to electrify my mop, too. But I could never quite achieve the same mane as Wayne. At 19, I gave up and let it flop like Kurt Cobain.
![[Contestants freeze for a picture with their best hairdo when it drops to -20C]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/07/17/newFile.jpg)
Twenty years later I was at the Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs in the Yukon, Canada. I’d flown from the UK to compete in the International Hair Freezing Contest. Every year, competitors are invited to jump into Eclipse’s balmy waters, wet their tresses and let Jack Frost have his way. Someone in the foyer asked what I was planning to fashion. “Well, have you heard of Wa…”.
![[Ice dive among the pines in the Yukon, Canada]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/12/newFile-2.jpg)
The caveat of the competition is that there must be cold weather. A minimum of -20C. If the mercury doesn’t sufficiently drop, your follicles won’t freeze and the fella with the camera won’t take your photo. When I arrived last winter, it was around -10°C. Damn cold, but not cold enough. You see, I’d unwittingly chosen an El Niño year, when North America warms up.
![[Rendezvous’s next chainsaw throwing competition starts on 7 February 2025]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/11/PXL_20240223_193541563.PORTRAIT.jpg)
My guide assured me that the temperature could drop: “Let’s just wait a few days and see,” she said, in a kindly tone. Fortunately, the competition isn’t a one-day affair: photos are taken across the season and judged in spring. “So, what can a solo traveller, bumbling around the Canadian subarctic, do while waiting to freeze their hair?” I asked.
![[Try a sled-to-tent wild camping experience in the Yukon]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/08/11/newFile-9.jpg)
