30 “Cool” Photos Of The Winners Of Canada’s Annual Hair Freezing Contest

Every year people from all over Canada rush to the Takhini Hot Pools in Whitehorse, Yukon, to participate in the annual Hair Freezing Contest. This year, 288 people tried their hands at creating the craziest frozen haircuts and after a careful consideration, the judges have announced five winners.

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Image source: Hair Freezing Contest

“Best Male”

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“Best Female”

In an interview with Bored Panda, Andrew Umbrich, the owner of the Takhini Hot Pools, said the contest started back in 2011 and was small at first with only about 10 submissions a year. However, it all changed when the contest went viral in 2015. “Since then, we have gotten more participants and the prize money has grown every year,” said the man. Back in 2015, the prize was only about 150 CAD (106 USD) and reached 750 CAD (529 USD) in 2018.

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Image source: Hair Freezing Contest

“Most Creative”

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“We are one of the only accessible hot springs in a very cold climate in the world. Even Iceland doesn’t get cold enough. So this means people can freeze their hair in the comfort of the hot springs water which is about 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees F),” said Andrew. “We noticed people could easily freeze their hair in comfort and an old manager thought of the idea of making it into a contest. People like it because it’s unique and kinda crazy for most of the world.”

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Image source: Hair Freezing Contest

“People’s Choice Award”

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“In 2018, during the contest, I could go for 100+ pages on Google search with the keywords ‘hair freezing contest’ and it was all about the competition,” said the man. “Next year, we expect to have about 5 sponsors for the contest and we hope to raise the prize money to 5,000 Canadian dollars [3,528 US dollars] or more per category.”

In 2018/2019, the contest got around 50 entries and Andrew said he expected to receive between 150 to 300 submissions for the 2019/2020 contest. “Tourists participate because it’s something they can’t really do anywhere else and it makes for crazy stories and photos. Locals do it for the prize money,” explained the man.

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Image source: Hair Freezing Contest

“Best Group”

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“This year every entry into the contest will see packs of instant noodles be donated to the local food bank and our second sponsor will also be making donations for every entry into the contest,” said the owner of the hot spirngs. “These donations will help increase local participation and the increase in prize money will also encourage tourists and locals to participate more. We want to make the contest very desirable to enter.”

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“Go bold. Be creative,” advised Andrew. “The winners are always obvious.”

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