{"id":749718,"date":"2026-06-20T15:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/749718\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T15:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:28:11","slug":"winnipeg-dads-learn-how-to-braid-their-daughters-hair-as-they-bond-over-beers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/749718\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg dads learn how to braid their daughters’ hair as they bond over beers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

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With a hairbrush in one hand and a craft beer in the other, Curtis Einarson takes a seat behind a mannequin head with long, vibrant pink and blue hair.<\/p>\n

The father of three young girls is one of a dozen dads sitting in the corner of Sookram’s Brewing Co., in Winnipeg on a recent Wednesday evening. The goal is for them to upgrade their limited hairstyling skills.<\/p>\n

“Average at best. I can do a ponytail, I think OK. Maybe ask [my daughters],” Einarson said when describing his prior proficiency in styling girls’ hair.<\/p>\n

A post on the social media site Reddit led Einarson to the Beers and Braids event.<\/p>\n

The concept was introduced in Manitoba’s capital earlier this year by makeup artist Ren Cherlet, who came across the idea after seeing a similar event on social media called Pints and Ponytails in England.<\/p>\n

\"ARen Cherlet shows a group of dads how to create different hairstyles for their daughters. (John Woods\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

The two-hour hair classes are designed for dads or father figures to learn how to do hairstyles, including ponytails, ballet buns and braids. Each class happens at a brewery and the ticket price includes one beverage.<\/p>\n

Cherlet, a self-described dance and sports mom, said she saw single dads in her circle struggle to do their daughters’ hair for extracurricular activities, and moms who just needed a break.<\/p>\n

After hosting her first Beers and Braids in March, her inbox flooded with men asking when the next class would be.<\/p>\n

“It’s really phenomenal. It’s taken off,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s such a necessity for dads to be able to kind of come together collectively for a common ground, get out together, have a beer, and then go home and practise what they learned.”<\/p>\n

It can be easy to fall into more traditional gender roles, she said, but “it’s important for the roles to change and be fluid.”<\/p>\n

Einarson has been trying to nail down doing his daughters’ hair for years. His three girls are ages six, eight and 10.<\/p>\n

They generally ask for ponytails, he said. It’s the pigtails \u2014 twin ponytails or braids on opposite sides of the head \u2014 that he hoped to ace in the class.<\/p>\n

“I want to be better at it for them,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For even the most-skilled stylist, doing someone else’s hair can pose a challenge.<\/p>\n

That’s why Cherlet keeps the class size capped at about 20.<\/p>\n

She has participants go over styles once they feel like they have mastered them. For those who need a little extra guidance, Cherlet or her assistant offer one-on-one help.<\/p>\n

\"ASome fathers attended “Beers and Braids” with friends, while others walked away with new pals at the end of the evening. (John Woods\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

It’s all about making sure dads don’t walk away defeated.<\/p>\n

She said some come in a bit trepidatious, but “you can kind of see throughout the evening that their confidence is just building and building.”<\/p>\n

Caleb Doerksen said doing hair for his three daughters was a big learning curve.<\/p>\n

The time crunch in the morning before school didn’t help, and his daughters \u2014 ages three, six and eight \u2014 would be quick with salty remarks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’ll let you know pretty quick if you’re pulling too hard or if there’s knots,” Doerksen said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

“I tried a bun the other day. That didn’t work very good. I just called it a fun bun. She wasn’t thrilled.”<\/p>\n

\"AFathers show off the hairstyles they created at the “Beers and Braids” at a local brewery in Winnipeg. (John Woods\/ The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n

Doerksen said his goal in the class was to learn the intricate fishtail braid, a style that mimics the look of scales on a fish’s tail.<\/p>\n

By the end, he was creating his own style of braid on the mannequin.<\/p>\n

Some join the class with dads they know, while others, like Einarson, show up alone and walk away with new friends.<\/p>\n

Cherlet said the classes provide opportunity for not only fathers to create bonding moments with their daughters but for men to hang with others trying to master a ballet bun or high ponytail.<\/p>\n

Einarson and two other fathers sitting at the same table exchanged tips throughout the night.<\/p>\n

“It’s a lot of fun. I’m really proud of myself so far,” Einarson said. “[I’m] meeting some new friends here and just having a good time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-749718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}