Canada’s Hair Freezing Contest Is Now Under Threat Due To Lack Of Cold Weather

Come winter, several visitors hop on to the hot spring pool and spa facilities in Canada defying gravity in the winter by turning their hair into upward-facing icicles. Welcome to the Hair Freezing Contest, one of Canada’s winter celebrations. But, the jovial celebration of coldness has already started to feel the effects of climate change, with warmer and shorter winters.

What Is The Hair Freezing Contest?

The Hair Freezing Contest was established at Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs with the straightforward goal of encouraging creativity and inventiveness by awarding minor prizes for the finest frozen hairstyles. Just a few dozen people entered the competition at first, but it quickly gained enormous popularity and, in 2020, set a Guinness World Record.

It turns out there is a method to creating hair that resembles icy ramen noodles. After emerging into the chilly air with their heads submerged, participants use their imagination to style updos with a variety of aesthetics, such as wild spikes and tangled mops.

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The ideal weather is crucial for hosting the competition. Temperatures below -4 °F (-20 °C) are essential. As a result, the competition might not be appropriate on some days.

How Is Climate Change Affecting This Contest?

This time of year, the hot spring’s water is roughly 42 degrees Celsius (about 108 degrees Fahrenheit). For Hair Freezing Contest, the magic figure that causes hair to freeze in a couple of minutes and stay iced is at least minus 20 Celsius (or minus 4 Fahrenheit). The ice on someone’s hair can melt if it becomes any warmer because of the hot spring’s vapour.

One of the nations where things are heating up more quickly than in other locations in Canada. Yet, the rate of temperature rise varies between those places. The temperatures are rising in Canada’s north at a rate three times that of the rest of the world, while warming is occurring twice as quickly in the south of the country.

The loss of delightfully intrinsic cultural practises that celebrate who we are is also in danger due to climate change, which is threatening delicate ecosystems all over the world.

All image credits: Website/Hair Freezing Contest