Climate change is affecting Canada's annual hair-freezing contest - The Washington Post

Climate change is affecting Canada's annual hair-freezing contest - The Washington Post
This year, candy canes and beads hung from a guest’s frosty hairdo at a hot spring pool in Canada. The woman’s hair — usually flowy and straight — now stood up into the air, hardened and styled into the shape of a Christmas tree. Come winter, scores of guests at the hot spring pool and spa facility defy gravity, turning their hair into upward-facing icicles. But climate change, bringing warmer and shorter winters, has already begun to take a toll on the lighthearted celebration of coldness. This year, there were fewer days with the bone-chillingly cold temperatures needed to freeze hair, said Andrew Umbrich, general manager and co-owner of Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs. “Unfortunately, the contest is very dependent on the weather,” he told The Washington Post. “Every year we grow a little bit more, with the 288 submissions in 2020 being our peak. This year, we had less than 100, and it was due to lack of cold weather, not lack of enthusiasm.” It turns out there’s a science to making strands of hair look like frosty ramen noodles. Participants dip their heads underwater, emerge into the frigid air and then employ their creativity in styling updos that vary in appearance from crazy spikes to tangled mops. Some have the helping hands of friends, while others fly solo. Once coifed, participants ring a bell to ask for a staff member to shoot their pic. “Sometimes people see the photos and think, ‘Oh, these crazy Canadians in freezing water freezing their hair,’” Umbrich said. “But it’s important to stress that this is done from the warmth of a hot spring — even if it’s freezing outside.” The water in the hot spring is about 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) this time of year. The outside temperature has to plummet to at least -20 degrees Celsius (or -4 degrees Fahrenheit) — the “magic number,” Umbrich said, that allows hair to freeze in a matter of minutes and stay iced. If it’s any warmer, vapor from the hot spring can melt the frost on someone’s hair. And that’s why this winter — one of the warmest on record for some parts of Canada— wasn’t exactly the best for a contest synonymous with subarctic temperatures. In Whitehorse, the capital of Yukon, November brought a warm weather stint delaying the icy conditions necessary for ice fishing, snowmobiling and ice skating. Then in January, a warm spell brought unseasonable slush and rain. And while one particularly warm winter or heat wave can’t necessarily be explained by climate change, it follows a pattern of rising temperatures that is causing Canada to heat disproportionately, said Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Center on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo. “The way I describe it is a little bit like a baseball player who’s gone on steroids and all of a sudden that baseball player starts to hit five times as many home runs,” Feltmate said. “We can’t see that any particular home run is due to the steroids. But if he or she is hitting five times as many home runs when going on steroids, you can pretty much say steroids are having an impact.” “Effectively what we have with climate change is weather on steroids, causing extreme weather events,” he added. Canada has been identified as one of the countries where things are getting hotter — and faster — than in other places. Yet, the pace of rising temperatures differs between regions there. Canada’s south is warming at twice the rate of the global average, while the north, where Yukon is located, has temperatures increasing at three times the global average, Feltmate said. The dissonance between the regions is the consequence of two forces shifting weather in Canada’s north: melting permafrost, which releases heat-trapping methane, and loss of ice in the Arctic. “It’s a positive feedback loop where the more snow and ice you lose, the warmer it gets, and the warmer it gets, the more snow and ice that melts,” Feltmate explained. For Yukon and the rest of the Canadian north, that might mean warmer and wetter winters in the future — putting a hamper on some of the region’s fun wintertime activities. “We often think of the worst effects of climate change, like hurricanes, wildfires, extreme weather events, heat waves that result in deaths,” Feltmate said. “And while the loss of these recreational activities might not be devastating, when you add them all up, it really does carry a toll. That’s why it’s so important that we realize we have to take action.” At the hot spring pool, this year’s mild winter — which would usually be a cause for relief — has people hoping for more frigid years to come. “It’s like being between a rock and a hard place,” said Adam White, marketing manager at Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs. “Realistically, this winter was easier on us for our personal lives. But this is the only place in the world with this contest, and it’s something that really lightens up the tough and dark winters we have here up north.” Still, White said participants from around the world injected their crazy hairdos with “tons and tons of creativity” this year. The winners in five categories — best female, best male, best group, best facial hair and most creative — will be announced next week. Afterward, the voting for “People’s Choice” will open online for anyone to choose their favorite frosty ’do. Winners of each category will be awarded a prize of 2,000 Canadian dollars, or approximately $1,456. And for those wondering: No, there has never been a hair-breaking incident. “We actually consulted with some hairdressers, and it’s not bad for the hair,” White said. “Basically, as soon as people get their photo taken, they just sunk their head back under the hot springs and then it’s completely melted back to normal.”