The school barbers in Suolahti shorten their locks with a device that costs a couple of euros.
A group of boys shut themselves in the locker room of the school gym. One guy sits in a chair and the others gather around. Soon a hum begins, the source of which is unmistakable.
Arttu Nyholm, Kari SpongeBob, Jere Rönn and Aatos Mustonen cutting their schoolmates’ hair in the toilet of Suolahti unified school. It is an enthusiasm that started at the beginning of February, which is based on videos of secret barbers seen in the Tiktok application. That’s what the boys do too: the barbering sessions are filmed, the videos are edited and published on Tiktok. The most popular video has been watched almost 300,000 times in a couple of weeks.
This is what the school barber gang from Suolahte looks like. Kari SpongeBob
This barber has no location. And not really an actual barber either. Enthusiasm for school barbering started when Rönn bought a hairdressing machine costing two euros from an online discount store. The first video was made just as a joke, but when 10,000 views were exceeded in no time, the guys wanted more. None of the four are barbers, even though the TIktok account says they are certified school barbers, certified school Barber.
– We don’t have any training. At first this was a fluke and we thought it would be fun to cut our friends’ hair, says Kari.
Hairdressing sessions for teenagers are completely voluntary, and no money changes hands. Haircuts are done in the school toilets a couple of times a week and then the group disappears like ashes in the wind. Not even a scrap of hair is left behind, because the friends clean up their tracks with a weed shovel.
Yankee-style haircuts are at the forefront of short hair trends. Illustration image. Unsplash
The school encourages entrepreneurship
At Suolahti school, students are encouraged to be entrepreneurship. The school principal Mika Lehtonen has not come across school barbers, although short-cut hair has been seen in school corridors.
– I bet that young people have seen a place for business and entrepreneurship here. I don’t know anything else about it, says Lehtonen.
The friends assure that the haircut is not intended to anger anyone. The work must also look good to the teachers. According to them, the school staff has given their tacit approval to the activity.
The mood of doing things together
The theatrical world of Some may be confusing, but despite that, cutting other people’s hair is not just a joke to Nyholm, Kari, Rönni and Mustose. At first, they thought it was just an internal school thing, until the number of viewers on Tiktok videos swelled.
– Now it’s nice that people want to come and make content with us. We don’t want to ruin anyone’s hair or anger anyone’s parents, says Nyholm.
Mostly young people from Suolaht have cut their short hair with a cheap barber machine. Various “feidaus”, i.e. shortening the hair little by little towards the skin, are trendy in the opinion of many. They haven’t dared to cut their long hair yet.
No hair dyes in the school bathroom
Barber-hairdresser and Wella hair brand trainer Pepe Hell has an encouraging attitude towards the mood of school barbers. He says that he himself was enthusiastic about making a tuka long before his training as a barber-hairdresser.
– If the dexterity needed to cut hair is practiced in the school toilet, then what could be better. If this inspires more men into the industry, it is only positive, Hell states.
As long as school barbering stays with haircuts, everything is fine. The legislation prohibits dyeing the hair of children under the age of 16.
– Hair dyes and their misuse can cause real damage, Hell reminds.
If you don’t see the picture, look at it from here.