By BOB OLIVER
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Hump the Grinder’s Hair Wars is taking over the Adoba Hotel for two days next week to show off their hair styling ability and to offer educational classes on all things hair related.
The Detroit-based hair entertainment company will be presenting a “hair entertainment” show at 6:05 p.m. Sunday inside the hotel with over 30 entertainers presenting over 250 different hair styles from fantasy to military to go with the “Salute to the Troops” theme for this year.
“The show will be a mix of runway-style modeling and short performance pieces,” Hair Wars founder David Humphries said. “Some of our stylists work all year to create their five-minute performance piece.”
Humphries said the mix makes the show more exciting and more appealing to the audience.
“You don’t have to be into hair to attend the show because it’s really about entertainment,” Humphries said. “A lot of people may think that it’s just a trade show for the industry but there’s a lot more going on. This will be full of fun performances and our audiences really get involved in the shows.”
He said the audience is encouraged to dress up for the show and style their hair as if they’re a part of it.
“We’ve been doing these shows since 1985 and more and more people are dressing up every year,” Humphries said. “It really creates a great environment because everyone feels included in the performances.”
He added that it is not a competition between the stylists, and everyone is working together to showcase their work and the work of their peers.
“Everyone supports one another and there’s always a lot of unique work presented,” Humphries said. “That adds to the excitement because it’s a collaborative environment.”
Humphries said this year’s show will be filmed and used as an audition reel to be sent to the U.S. Armed Forces Entertainment Division, which is why the military theme was chosen.
“We want to be able to bring the show out to entertain troops around the world at military bases,” Humphries said. “We’re trying to get some of their hair stylists and entertainers a chance to travel overseas to showcase their talents for our service men and women.”
Hair Wars also offers a series of educational classes on May 5 at the Adoba beginning at 10 a.m.
“Detroit is the hair capital of the world,” Humphries said. “We put the educational classes on to teach new techniques to hair stylists and keep them informed on different things going on in the industry.”
Hair stylists Big Roy, L.A. Braid Queen, JoJo Lanier and Nathan Adams will instruct classes on styling and product information, hair maintenance and other topics.
“These are some the best stylists in the world so there will be a lot of good information presented to the audience,” Humphries said.
Show and ticket information for the entertainment show and educational series are available on Hair Wars’ website, www.hairwarsustour.com.
(Bob Oliver can be reached at [email protected].)