An upcoming event will make hair braiding and styling more accessible for Black and mixed-race kids in Bend, offering free hair care for them to look and feel their best for picture day.
The event will have braiders, barbers and a nail artist to get kids ready for picture day, filling a need in Central Oregon while promoting community understanding of diverse hair textures and style. It all started with three women with a common goal: to foster inclusion and celebrate diversity in the community.
Vida Clemons moved to Bend about a year ago and started working as a local hairstylist at Spell Studio. Almost immediately, she had a lot of clients looking for braids, many of whom were kids. "Where I'm from, there's a braid place everywhere, I mean, on every corner," she said.
Clemons, who moved here from Philadelphia, noticed a lot of her clients didn't know how to braid or maintain their hair. She works with a lot of white parents who have mixed-race kids and often found herself making videos to send to parents – showing them how to scarf their hair and how to do maintenance. "It made me feel like, OK, more people need to know this," she said.
Chrissy Boswell, who has lived in Bend for 20 years, started going to Clemons to get her hair done, as she was the first hairstylist she found that could manage and braid her hair. One day, Clemons told Boswell about her idea of teaching and offering hair braiding and maintenance to kids in Bend, and the two started brainstorming about how to make it a reality.
The women found it important to not only teach kids how to do their hair but to also offer resources. The hope, Boswell said, is to provide awareness for people, connecting them with braiders and barbers who are educated about Black hair, and to offer services to families who may not have the available resources.
"Our hair is also part of our identity, it's how we represent ourselves, it's how people see us," said Bethlehem Dolicho, one of the organizers. Dolicho is a traveling nurse and, while spending time in Bend, she too struggled to find a hairstylist. Once she met the other two women, she decided to help Clemons film videos on how to do hair.
While discussing the importance of teaching these skills, Clemons mentioned the culture of bullying, and how hair can play a big part.
"I get a little bit emotional thinking about it. I didn't know how to do my hair before, and I used to get bullied," she recalled. One of their main missions is instilling confidence in kids by offering styling and hair care education.
"These little kids are going to be able to feel seen, feel heard and connected to a community where they might feel like an island," said Dolicho.
Clemons will work alongside other hairstylists at the event, including Jordan Nicole, Tihanee Vaughan and Ivan Johnson.
In addition to getting kids picture day-ready, attendees will receive braiding gel, gift bags with fun goodies inside and end the day with a photo shoot. The event was sponsored by community members through Go Fund Me, and local organizations, including Home Instead and Westside Church.
"The whole idea is to snowball into something bigger," said Clemons. "This is just the start."
