Episode V: The Fist Trial Run

I had my first trial run set for October 21st at Capitol School. I already had help from my girlfriend, Allyson, putting up the Mohawk once, so I was 100% confident that I could beat the record. These trial runs at Capitol were just to make sure everything went smooth on the Record Breaking Day. I did NOT want to hold a press conference and get all of these people and businesses together just to show the world how great I was at screwing up a record attempt! I had to make sure that everything went perfectly, or at least as close to perfect as I could get.




So I told you that I met with Calarice Zomer. She is the one that helped pick the students that were going to help with the Mohawk, and helped set everything up for the press conference. And, yes, I did say students. When I first got this idea, I thought I was going to need a seasoned professional hairstylist to help me. However, after seeing some of the students work, and talking with Scott and Clarice, I was absolutely certain that the students here were up to the task. Plus, I liked the idea of having students from a hairstyling school put up the Mohawk. Something about it made it seem….I don’t know…kind of like we were banding together, or forming a team to do something that we were all new to, and we had to figure it out together, and learn as we go. I think it also put a little element of risk to the task in the eyes of other people. I had complete confidence in the students, but when I told other people that it was the students that were going to raise the Hawk, they were surprised and impressed, and it made it a little more exciting to them.

The day came for us to raise the Hawk for the first time. I was charged and excited, but a little apprehensive. I came to Capitol prepared with all of the necessary provisions: Ten cans of hairspray…check. Two big pieces of cardboard…check. Order from Chaos T-shirt…check. Camera…check. Camera woman…check. The camera woman that day was my girlfriend Allyson’s mom, Alyce. I took this picture of her while lying on the table. She usually doesn't have her arms crossed, and has a wonderful smile, but I caught her off guard with this one!



It was 10:00 in the morning. I went in and Clarice introduced me to Elliot and Katie, the two stylists who were now my partners in Mohawk raising crime. We cleared off a large table that was full of mannequin heads for me to lie upon, and we got started. It didn’t take long for a crowd to start gathering. There are a lot of students there, and I must say it was pretty nice lying down on a table that was waist high and surrounded by a bunch of beautiful women.






After about 3 hours of teasing, combing, spraying, flipping, hair drying, and 4 cans of hairspray, it finally looked ready. As I sat up, the applause came...and the Mohawk was erected! I remember Elliot stopped clapping and immediately came to adjust the Mohawk, as it was leaning to the side…a lot! However, it was standing, and we knew that next time we could make it stand straight.



It felt pretty weird. I constantly had a feeling like it was falling over, and it was throwing off my balance. I couldn’t help tilting my head to the right a little bit, so I was walking kind of funny. Katie measured the Mohawk, and it was just under 27 inches. Overall, it was a success, and now we all knew for sure that it could be done, and I could beat the record.



There was a couple things we learned from the trial run. First, we definitely needed a bigger, more sturdy piece of cardboard. We also needed to find a way to prop it up a bit. You can see in the picture of me lying on my side that my head is not straight, and that’s what made the Mohawk curved. We also learned that oil-based hairspray cannot be used, because it is too heavy. It must be water-based. Additionally, even though it took a lot of time and effort, we learned that it was a lot of fun to put up a Mohawk, and we all had a great time doing it!

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

OK, sorry ‘bout the Star Wars reference, I couldn’t help it. But the title is fitting in a way. You see, when I got the first inkling of breaking the record for tallest Mohawk, there was a kind of “phantom menace” presence in my life. I had recently gotten over some health issues, (which I won’t go into), and I was working a part-time job at Universal Information Services. I was in a band, called The Filthy Few, and we were having fun playing shows and stuff, but it wasn’t really getting anywhere. There was something in my gut that was telling me it was time to do something. But what? Another band? No, something different. Something good, and grand, and bad-ass. Something that would let me know I still got passion and drive in my life. That’s when I came across Aaron Studham.


I was secretly surfing the net at work one day, (sorry Todd), and I saw a clip of Aaron on the Ellen show. He had the world’s tallest Mohawk. I was interested, and clicked on it to find out the record he set was 24 inches. “24 inches”, I thought, “I could beat that easily!” Then I went back to work, not thinking much of it.
In the next few weeks, it kept coming back to me, gnawing at me. 24 inches…, it seems like the tallest Mohawk should be bigger than that. Maybe I should beat it. I was thinking of cutting my hair anyway. After a while, I kind of forgot about it. Then I started to notice something. At my job, I scan in newspapers from all over the country into a database. In these newspapers, I started noticing stories about Guinness record attempts. They were everywhere. I had not noticed them before, and it wasn’t all different stories. A story about one record attempt could be in hundreds of papers. This really got me thinking. If I did attempt this record, it could get a lot of attention. I could do something with this. Maybe this IS what I have been looking for, that “phantom menace” that had been hovering over me for some time.
I started to talk about it with friends at shows, family, and whoever I could bounce it off of. They all told me to go for it, but I had the feeling most of them thought I would never do it. I don’t blame them; sometimes I get grandiose ideas in my head and start blabbing about them, and then do nothing about it. But this was different, I could do this, and I was kind of excited about it. I could get some pub for my band; maybe get sponsors, who knows what could come from this? There was one thing, though, that made me decide I was going to go for it. I asked myself, “What am I doing? Where am I going?” Nothing. Nowhere. “What else you gonna do?” asked the phantom menace. “This could be fun!” He was right. This could be fun. In fact, it’s going to be fun! That phantom menace was lingering in my heart for some time, and now I knew why. He was there to push me into breaking the record for world’s tallest Mohawk! It sounds kinda stupid, I know, but how many of you out there have something tuggin’ at ya, and you don’t know what it is, or why? Keep listening, and looking, and that opportunity for the answer will finally reveal itself.
So…there it was. I had decided to do it!
Now what?.......

Stay tuned for Episode two!

And just a reminder, this blog won’t have the impact it should if you don’t see the final results of the Record Breaking Day. If you haven’t seen the “Things to Know” section of this blog, check out the videos on the right, and click the "see more videos and pics" button to see how far this event actually went.

Until next time,
Cheers!

NOT Episode I

OK, I know this was supposed to be episode one, but I just found out that a lot of video and pics out there on the Internet are disappearing. So...I went and harvested them so I could put them all up on this blog for keepsake. If you want to see what I have gathered, click on the "see more video and pics" link in the Things to know section to the right. There is some very interesting stuff there, especially the Japanese television shows! Check it out!

BLOG PROLOGUE:A little set up for the ramblings about to be inflicted upon you.

I want to make sure that people who read this understand something. There are thousands of world records attempted, set, and broken every day. Not that I am bragging, (well, maybe a little), but very few of them get the publicity that my record attempt did. Why mine? Because I, and many other people, put a lot of thought, preparation, and work into this to help springboard the event onto the national platform. It was not easy, and we had a little luck on our side, but I believe the process can be duplicated for anyone who wants to, and I think this information is valuable. So if you are thinking of making a world record attempt, organizing an event, looking to get publicity or sponsorship, or all of the above, then this blog will have many nuggets of information that will be very interesting to you.

It’s not all about the record, though. My blog will also have current events and goings on in my life peppered throughout the episodes as well. By the way, that is how I intend to set up this blog. Each time I want to talk about a day in my quest for the world record, or talk about something relevant to the record, I will call it an “Episode”, just to set it apart from the rest of the crap I might throw out at you, like a picture of my cat, or something.



So anyway, enough of the B.S., I think you get the idea. In my next post we will get right to it, and it will be called, “Episode I”. I want to update this blog daily, but that probably won’t happen, because I am a space case. But I won’t leave ya hangin’ for months, or anything. If you are interested, check back every other day, or so, and I should have updates by then. Also, I will soon set up an email alert, or RSS, or twitter, or something like that to alert anyone who might be listening when I have updated.

Talk to you soon,

Eric Hahn