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Haircuts by Children

A conceptual art piece created by Darren O’Donnell, Haircuts by Children is a performance that provides the opportunity to trust the creativity and competency of children's aesthetic choices, with a deeper suggestion that we should in fact be entrusting children with more opportunities to be fully engaged citizens in society.

Darren created the concept when, at a youth conference, he asked a 10 year old boy to cut his hair and the child refused – not comfortable with the offer for fear of not doing a good job, despite repeated assertions that there would be no reprisal regardless of the outcome. O’Donnell found the refusal intriguing, feeling that the child was perhaps used to being disempowered, so that when offered the freedom to exert some power, he was not comfortable enough to engage in the opportunity.

Samten Tenzin gives project creator Darren O’Donnell a trim

(considering there is not much there to begin with…)

In essence, this performance seeks to demonstrate that children approach the personal, and sometimes sensitive, process of shaping someone’s hair style quite seriously, recognizing their responsibility in ensuring a positive, agreed upon result.

As such, Darren feels this artistic endeavour should challenge our paternalistic approach to children regarding larger issues in society, stating “it’s a delusion to believe that children can’t assemble informed opinions about policy issues”. 

For Darren, the Artistic Director of the Mammalian Diving Reflex (MDR), this is the latest exercise in his repertoire of “social acupuncture” art projects which create structured moments that break down boundaries between performer and audience.

His approach to making art is one that seeks to dismantle the barriers between individuals and expand the definition of theatre, fostering a dialogue between audience members, the material, and performers, in order to stimulate civic engagement.

For the launch of Haircuts by Children, Darren has looked to his own community, working with grade 5 and 6 students from Parkdale Public School. 

The process with the students began with a workshop on conceptual art, which explored the use of representational and relational art to express thoughts and opinions on important issues; ten-year-old Anthony Tran described this exercise as “very deep” and something that “took a lot of thinking”. The students were then provided with training on mannequins from two professional hair stylists. Following at least two training sessions, the students were then able to work with clients.

Anthony Tran in training.

MDR formed partnerships with four salons and barber shops, paying each for the use of their space during the performance. These performance sites represented different urban communities in Toronto, with the closing weekend tied into Harbourfront Centre’s MILK International Children’s Festival of the Arts, a partnership that was valued by both MDR and Parkdale Public School. 

Teacher Amanda Biber indicated that involvement in the Festival was a very useful reference point in engaging parental support as “it was something they recognized”.   Amanda feels the students have had a great opportunity to “open their minds to different ways to express themselves and raise awareness.” 

Students themselves reported a range of responses to the project from it being fun to cut hair, and interesting to have a work experience, to some interesting perspectives on the dynamics between children and adults.

Anthony felt that cutting hair for adults created a situation where “kids have power over adults instead of the other way around”. He stated, “You feel like you’re a part of it – not out of it. Adults don’t really understand kids. When we have power over adults, they understand us better and we become part of their world.”

Fellow students Alana Tinney and Samten Tenzin expressed similar sentiments. “It is nice to have a feeling of power because I am responsible," states Alana, “I’m a responsible person”. 

Samten said the adults “don’t have to trust, but they should trust us when we cut their hair, they should have faith in us”. 

All the students were a little nervous, particularly on their first hair cut. All wanted to do a good job. “You don’t want people not to like it,” said Samten. “It’s a little scary”, agreed Alana, “you don’t want to mess up”.

The young stylists did have some extra pressures and notable experiences – one woman came for her first hair cut in nine years, asking for her elbow length hair cut short. Arriving with the hair in two long braids entwined with flowers, she asked Maaz Ali to first remove the braids just below her ears. They then proceeded to work out a new short hair style for her, and discussed what she might do with the hair that was cut off, including potential use in an art project and donating some of it to be made into a wig for someone with cancer. Another notable cut was when Camille Balda was asked to style the hair of a blind woman.

In all locations there was considerable media presence. “We received more media attention than we could have expected” said the show’s producer Naomi Campbell, “it has made it interesting for the kids, as they have had to cut hair with reporters, microphones and cameras right up close”. 

The media coverage included print dailies and community papers, as well as several television and radio features by CityTV, ROgers, MuchMusic, and CBC. This element provided additional learning opportunities for the students in media literacy. 

Following the performances Darren and Naomi conducted a media analysis with the students. 

Alana’s first hair cut had been for Patrick Sisam, a reporter for the Globe and Mail who's story described the experience as an “adrenaline-pumping thrill of danger” with “scissors careening millimeters from my left ear” and leaving with “noticeable hunks of hair missing”. 

As each of the media pieces was reviewed and the students were asked to identify any themes they saw in the coverage, one replied “they focus on the negative”, another said “they see it as a risk”. Alana had previously said the story in the Globe had upset her “because it wasn’t what I thought had happened” and she noted during the session that she thought the focus on the negative was “because they think it makes a better story”. 

Darren expressed that immediate reactions to the project were frequently ones that “conjure up an image of mania – kids running around with scissors. This is what the media seems to play upon. When people came for haircuts they saw how the kids were focused and calm, and concentrated on doing a good job”.

This opportunity to look at media, including the use of music and other effects to shape a segment, provided the students with the chance to reflect on the way in which messages are shaped and delivered in society. As part of this debriefing session, the students created an e-mail response to Sisam and his account:

Hi Patrick,

It's all of us from Haircuts by Children. How are you

doing? How is your haircut?  Too bad you can't be here

with us today. We just want to say thank you for being

our first live model and thanks for the article. : D

We understand a writer is supposed to think about the

reader but the writer should also think about the

people they write about. We feel you exaggerated and

focused on the negative too much. :' (For example,

Alana didn't cut "hunks of hair",  because she wanted

to do a good job.

Please respect us little kids.

It is possible that this media literacy experience was one of the most valuable exercises to foster citizen engagement among the students.

What’s Next?

Minsook (Minsook) Lee, writer, broadcaster and an award-winning documentary director/producer recorded footage of the entire project and will be developing a documentary project on Haircuts by Children. Darren and Naomi have been contacted by other festivals and theatre companies in Ohio, British Columbia, Los Angeles and Australia expressing interest in hosting the project.

In the summer of 2007 there will be a reprise performance in Toronto in which eight Toronto schools will participate in a “cut off” contest with celebrity clients (information that seemed to have some Parkdale students a little miffed as they clearly feel a sense of ownership of the project). There is certainly a desire to take this work further and see what it reveals. 

How can it be done better?

“We need to work on the outreach” admitted Campbell. While the locations included in this first run were deliberately chosen to reflect different Toronto communities, efforts directed at engaging those communities in the project can be improved. At the Wisdom Barber Shop and Beauty Salon, which has long-served the predominantly Jamaican-Canadian community, almost all of the clients for the performance were imports from other parts of the city.

“Next time, when we engage other schools in the process, it will help us to connect better with the different communities.”

As for Darren, he is thrilled to grow the project but also is interested in staying close to its roots, hoping to stay engaged with the Parkdale Public School students as they move through junior high and high school if possible – working with them to “trust something other than the rational in difficult times”.

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