Vision

Every year our school’s Hairstyling program uses dozens of mannequin styling heads as each student receives one each year to practice their haircutting techniques. Once the hair reaches the buzzcut stage, the mannequins are no longer useful for the program and they are thrown out…every year. We wanted to find a way to reduce this landfill waste.

Action

Students in the Hairstyling program were re-using the mannequins for art projects. Ultimately, they were later thrown out too since most students didn’t want to keep their creations, but now there was the additional waste of paint, glitter, artificial flowers and other dollar store craft supplies. We came up with an idea to cut off the tops of the heads and use them as a planters. We generally have a Horticulture class and a Sustainability club that meets who were also to be involved, but these were cancelled this year due to the pandemic restrictions in schools, so the Hairstyling group decided to go ahead with the project anyway. Students each received a mannequin head, pot, soil and flower seeds and were to design the heads in anyway they chose. Unfortunately our schools went to remote learning just as the creative process was to get started.

Reflection & Celebration

We are hoping that students will submit their photos once they have completed their projects at home and we plan to try this project again next year. They mannequin head planters drew a lot of attention sitting in the Hairstyling room, even in their unfinished state.