A hair salon station is set to pop into the West Penn lobby on April 11th, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., no appointments necessary.
“It’s a three-hour event where students can come and get a really cheap haircut,” Emmiley Stern, AdFed president, said in an interview March 18th at the Point Café.
This will be the second pop-up hair salon event of the school year hosted by the American Advertising Federation (AdFed) and Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), both clubs that are active within the university.
“I know, at least from my experience and other students, as well, that when the holidays roll around, you want to look good to see your family, and that’s what influenced us to do it last semester,” said Stern.
Back in November, students took advantage of this conveniently located event.
“Long story short, I needed a haircut and didn’t know where the closest Supercuts was, so I thought, ‘Alright, cool, haircut on campus!’” said Sam Morrison, a freshman broadcast production major.
The hairdressers found themselves to be very busy with the unexpected turnout.
“I hope for this upcoming event we get more hairdressers because we didn’t have that many and we actually had a lot of students come in,” said Kayla Belovich, a member of AdFed.
Last semester’s pop-up salon did not specify who was giving the haircuts, but that did not stop students from showing up.
“What turned a lot of people off was that they thought it was [regular] students cutting hair, and don’t get me wrong, I love people, but don’t touch my hair. Whether they were [cosmetology] students or professionals, they did a pretty good job,” said Morrison.
Keeping college students’ budgets in mind, the group tried to set a reasonable price for them.
“We only charged $2 a cut then, but we’re changing the pricing because we noticed that people last semester wanted different styles,” said Stern.
This time the cost is $5 per cut, no more than five inches, no styling, and no shaved heads.
The pop-up hair salon was the first of its kind to take place on Point Park’s campus.
“We were very pleased with ourselves. It’s a little bit funny, but I got a good haircut out of it,” said Bob O’Gara, advisor of AdFed and PRSSA in an interview in Thayer Hall on Thursday, Mar. 17.
The pop-up hair salon was completely the group’s idea last semester, according to O’Gara
“I think a part of it came to be because some of the members knew people who could cut hair,” he said.
Proceeds were divided between the clubs and charity.
“Half of the money will go to Wigs For Kids, which is the same charity we donated to as last time,” said Stern.
The purpose of AdFed and PRSSA is to connect students with the professions they are seeking and enable them to participate in professional level activities with people that they’ll eventually work with or might hire them.
“Beyond that, they [the group] have obligations inside the university to throw some events that will help raise money for charity and also to increase their visibility on campus for new members,” said O’Gara.
The group’s main goal was to come together to do something for the student body.
“I think it’s just a symbol of our students being pretty enthusiastic and creative and wanting to do something for a worthy cause,” said O’Gara.