A hair-raising idea for Cancer Research UK
The Hairantine Project is a charitable cause set up by two creatives which takes advantage of people's battles with their locked down manes.
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Creative team Alex Mendes and Hugo Catraio have come up with an ingenious way to raise money for Cancer Research UK that plays on the much-discussed lockdown hair situation.
People definitely have a strong emotional connection with their hair. We saw an opportunity to turn that conversation into something positive, fun and useful.
While those of us who are follicly challenged have, for once, had the upper hand over the past 12 months (a razor and a mirror is all we need), many people have been stuck trying to tame, tidy and treat wayward barnets while hair salons and barber shops have been closed during the latest lockdown.
Above: A selection of the artworks available on the Hairantine Project site.
As those establishments prepare to open across England on April 12, and the conversations around lockdown hair (the amateur cuts, the regretful dye jobs, the experimental stylings) fade away, Mendes and Catraio wanted to help support patients going through cancer treatment, whose hair will still be the source of many emotions even after lockdown is over.
Called The Hairantine Project, Mendes and Catraio invited artists from all over the world to create posters around the theme of hair to be sold via a virtual gallery, with worldwide delivery. "Our hair is getting harder and harder to tame," said Medes. "Some people are dealing with the issue by cutting their own hair, with results that can be disastrous and funny, but people definitely have a very strong emotional connection with their hair. So, we saw an opportunity to turn that conversation into something positive, fun and useful."
Artists including Bruno Rovarotto, Le Cube, Daniel Semanas and Carol Missaka have all created artworks especially for this project, each available on the Hairantine site, with all profits from the sale of each piece going to Cancer Research UK.
"The biggest challenge has been trying to get people’s attention, and then have the illustrations done in tight deadlines," said Mendes. "But, overall, once we managed to get in contact with an artist, the response has been amazingly positive."
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