by KENYA SMITH \ INTERN
kenya.smith@tidewaternews.com

WINDSOR
A large crowd of dads got to spend some quality time with their little girls during Daddy Daughter Hair Care Night at Windsor Elementary School on Thursday. The hour-long event was hosted by the Isle of Wight County Schools’ cosmetology students.

Father-and-daughter pairs were greeted as they came in, and each received gift bags with items such as hair bows, hair ties and a comb to take home for more father/daughter bonding. Each dad had a one-on-one lesson with a cosmetology student on how to style their daughter’s hair. First using head mannequins, the students taught the fathers basic techniques such as combing, parting the hair, making a ponytail and three-strand braiding. Then, the dads practiced the techniques on their daughters’ hair, with a little help from the students.

Cosmetology students Tayah Lewis and Drew Patton have high anticipation that the session will help father and daughter relationships grow stronger.

“The purpose of this event is to make dads and their daughters bond with each other,” said Lewis. Patton hopes that this program will help fathers with having something to do with their daughters, especially during their free time.

“If dads are at home from work, doing their daughters’ hair will help them be able to talk with their daughters and to have fun,” said Patton.

The IWCS cosmetology students had been preparing for the event by practicing their styling methods with head mannequins so they can demonstrate the techniques in front of the dads.

Those students even did a Teacher Pamper Day at Windsor High School three weeks ago in order to raise money for materials needed to create gift bags for the father/daughter event. Plus, the students have already done another Daddy Daughter Hair Care Night at Westside Elementary School in Smithfield on Tuesday.