Ready? Hair We Go!
Is the treadmill of late-stage capitalism messing with your head, too?
Recently, I was walking from the tram stop towards my house feeling quite lost. I couldn’t figure out what I want from this city, what it wants from me, realizing gradually that being a writer means having to market yourself as a beautiful, clever, sleek, irresistible, unique – product. Needless to say, I identified with none of those descriptors. In this brooding state of mind, I was stopped in my tracks by a poster, bright purple, in a cafe window.
“Is the treadmill of late-stage capitalism messing with your head, too?”, it read. And promised: “We can fix some of that (the hair part).”
I checked the attached instagram profile, and found out that the deal is this: get a haircut in return for something else, whatever you want – a poetry reading, cake, friendship, a crocheting lesson, the chance to pet your dog – anything, just not money.
Immediately, I thought: I want this. And: this is scary. And: a fear is a wish, a wish! I decided that the hair part of the problem needed fixing, and sent a dm.
Hair and care
Licia, Cato and Emma live in a cozy apartment with a large balcony in Osdorp. They study environmental humanities and philosophy, are active in the Reclaim the Seeds and Re_Nature festivals, and have a history of developing a practice of care and experimentation around hair.
The following quotes come from voice notes they shared with me after my haircut for the purpose of this text, my trade.
“For me it started when I shaved my head two years ago. That was a pretty big moment for me”, Cato began. “Emma did it, actually. I remember it as very intimate, because hair holds memory, it’s a central part of our identity, it also represents gender roles…hair has more to it than we usually think.”
Licia explained: “I had been cutting my own hair for years at that point – learning from youtube videos, because I was interested in seeing different techniques and experimenting with dyes. The only time I went to the hairdresser was once two years ago, because I didn’t know how to cut my own mullet. By observing her techniques, I tried to reproduce them and now I cut my own mullet sometimes, too. I’m not an expert at all, I just have fun with it. It started with me and Cato cutting our own hair, experimenting with it, and then over time some of our friends would ask to join in.”
Hair and hospitality
They started hosting spontaneous hair gatherings: “We started doing these nights where we would just hang out and be creative. It was very relaxed but also fun. And you push each other out of your comfort zones, because maybe someone is doing a buzzcut and then in response another person wants to get highlights – and after you’ve done it you feel like a whole different person. Your exterior actually matches the part of you that was bold, daring. This only happens if you’re with people you like in an environment you trust, where you feel represented. Getting your haircut at the hairdresser is pretty uninspiring, I would say.”
Over time, the three of them realised that they had something uniquely valuable to offer, and decided to open up their home and practice to strangers. “At first we didn’t think it would become much of a thing, but we were so hyped about it that we created the whole experience with deep care and love”, Cato remembered.
Emma added: “When they pitched it to me I was very excited. Not because I know how to cut hair, Licia does all the nice, hard work and Cato does the graphics. But I really enjoy meeting new people and exchanging stories, sensation, feelings and reasons why we all ended up in this city that, in a certain way, has adopted us.” Emma’s self-appointed responsibility is to inhabit the role of the host: “I ask people loads of questions, because I’m genuinely curious and want them to feel at ease and not awkward. It can feel strange to go to a complete stranger’s house and trust them with your hair – but it can bring you such confidence, too. I LOVE seeing peoples’ smiles after the haircut, and feeling their warmth after we’ve had a conversation.”
Hair and the gift economy
Crucially, their model is not based on monetary exchange, but on the elusive art of sharing gifts, skills and services. “I want to share my skill with people who maybe cannot afford a haircut, because in Amsterdam they are so expensive.”, Licia said. “We think it’s really important in the society we live in to practice values like sharing, exchanging skills and creating community.”
“It’s always great to meet people with passions for things I might have never heard of”, Emma added. “And sometimes they bring their passions to our house in exchange for the haircut. Like reading to us from a book, bringing stuff to make arts and crafts, or even cocktails!”
Cato commented on the ways in which we have become unaccustomed to sharing: “I don’t want to say I was surprised, that I didn’t expect people to bring us nice things, but it really showed me that people have this deep desire to share stuff with others. And we are so unused to it, uneducated in a way. We’re so closed off. I think people need this more than they realize, and so did I. So did Licia and Emma as well. Everyone that came through our living room said the same thing: that it wasn’t just a haircut, but a moment to connect, to share and be together.”
They hope that their initiative will reach more people in the future, without outgrowing its current core of welcoming care and fun: “I hope this can reach more people and that we will have the time to organise it in a more structured way, because I feel like it’s needed and could become something even more beautiful. It’s just a project that’s very, very close to my heart.”
Layers and resolutions
As for me, I’m glad to have followed the wish and not the fear this time – now I have layers in my hair for the first time in my life and friends tell me I look like Farrah Fawcett (in a good way). Besides the hair part, though, it was a welcome reminder that writing doesn’t need to be a commercial product, at least not always, necessarily. It can also be a reciprocal service, it can come from a place of community! So, if late-stage capitalism is messing with your head, too – you know what to do. Trade all manner of gifts with your friends. Or let Licia give you a sexy haircut.