Episode XI: The Measurment

The first person to come meet me was little Dougie, a handsome young man with a kick-ass Mohawk! He has been a fan of Mohawks for a long time, and when he heard The worlds’ta tallest Mohawk record was gonna be beat here in Omaha, he asked his mom to come down and check it out. I am glad he did, he’s a great kid.

So I made my way through the crowd, people taking pictures and shaking my hand. I had to walk slowly and carefully, I did not want anything to happen before I broke the record. Most of the people who worked at Capitol showed up with Mohawks, too. It was totally cool!

Sitting down at the conference table was exciting and scary. The television cameras were set up, and the crowd was bigger than I thought it would be. I could feel the great energy in the room from everyone, so I was confident it was going to go well.

I answered some questions from some people, handed over the sides of my hair to be donated to Locks of Love, and we did the measurement. Elliot grabbed a yardstick, measured, and yelled out, “it’s exactly 27 inches, a new world record!” Then the crowd erupted in applause. The measurement was officially done, and I felt great!

After the measurement, I did a couple interviews, talked to some people, and took some pictures with paparazzibyappointment.com.

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 The day was far from over. I had to go to do an interview with Tom Becka later, then the benefit concert in the evening. So, I decided to go home and take a little nap. I had to keep the base of the Mohawk in form, so the drive home was interesting. I was stuffed in my truck with the Mohawk bent over! Oh yes, I got some strange looks. Then, at home, I sat up in my chair to take a nap, it was definitely challenging, I wish I had some pictures.

After a few hours, Elliot and Katie came over to my house to put up the Mohawk again. Then, Pete Lochren came over to pick me up in his chalkboard truck. It’s one of his art cars, and the only thing I could think of that I might fit in for the ride to the radio station.

It was a bit windy that day, so the walk from the truck across the street to the radio station was a bit difficult. I held up a piece of cardboard to block the wind and keep the Mohawk from falling over. I was wondering if wearing the Mohawk was going to translate very well over radio. I think it went great. Tom Becka was a gracious host, and made the interview go wonderfully. Everyone there was nice. Here is a recording of that interview:

After the interview, Pete and I went into a bar on Underwood street and freaked out a few people with the Mohawk. While I was drinking a pint with a few patrons, a funny moment happened when my Mohawk got caught in the Christmas decorations above the bar! It took a minute to untangle the lights from the Hawk, and we all had a good laugh at that.

Pete then took me back home, and I had a few more hours to kill before the show. I made some phone calls, and did some final preparations, and went early to the venue to make sure everything was ready to go. I had the base of the Mohawk still put up, and the rest of it was pulled back in a tail so I could maneuver around without doing any damage.

And that’s where I will leave you today. Here is the video that Wayne Brekke did that ties the whole conference together:

We will continue with the Record Breaking Show in the next episode, with som very cool pics and video!

Cheers!

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!

Get a Haircut, and Get a Real Job. (Or at Least a Haircut).

The day before yesterday, (Friday), I went to Capitol and got my sides shaved and the hawk cut and cleaned up. Tuco tagged along, and he just happened to have a camera, so we took some pics! Ok, actually, I asked him to come along and take some pics. I got some plans fer this hawk, after all, and I want to document everything while it still sits upon my head.

I didn’t stand it up, but I had to thin it out, because I think I figured out a way to put it up without the huge boards, and in half the time. If it is thinner at the base, I think I can just lay down and have someone help brush it and put something a little more heavy duty than hairspray on the base, (not sure what yet), and then just lightly hairspray the top, so as not to make it too heavy. Hopefully I can get it done in under a half hour, because I want to start wearing it up more often. I also wanted to get it braided for when I don’t wear it up.
A very kind and beautiful woman named Octavia was my stylist, and she did an amazing job! She had her work cut out for her, too, because I let the sides and back go for months with no cut or trim. It was looking pretty nasty, check out this mop!
Tuco and I goofed around with Octavia and a few other stylists there while she was working away. We talked with a cool stylist named Brooke who just happened to get a Mohawk herself the day before.

Here's the results of Octavia's work:















Later on that night, we met up with Chad at the Sydney to check out the Filter Kings. They put on an excellent show! We didn’t have a camera for that, but here is a pic of them from another show.
If you haven’t seen them and get a chance to, I would highly recommend doing so.

Oh,I almost forgot. While I was at Capitol, I found out that an article was written about Capitol Schools and me in the May issue of Beauty Launchpad. I can see why, after all, I am a launchpad of beauty. (yea right!)
Anyway, they had a plaque of the article hung up by the door. Pretty cool!

Episode IV: Moving, Networking, and Learning as You Go

So now my ass is movin! I remember thinking that if I could just get a salon and one or two more sponsors to help me, I would be in good shape. I had already contacted Locks of Love, and all they needed was a time and date for the event to approve. I had to get a solon and a venue for that, and a photographer as well was necessary, so those were what I focused on. I live in Benson, so I drive by Paparazzi By Appointment all the time, seeing their cool sign on the building. Plus, I had heard some good things about them, so I gave them a call, and spoke with Laura, who was very gracious. She was into it immediately, and said yes. That was a big weight off my shoulders, because I definitely wanted a professional photographer there, and now I could concentrate on the hairstylist. Still no luck there.

I had a draft of the Big Brain Productions proposal, so I contacted them and dropped off a proposal at their shop for the owner, Smitty. To my surprise, when I called a couple days later, they put me through to Smitty, and he told me to come in right away. It was a surprise, because it is very hard to get an appointment with Smitty, he is so booked up. I went to his absolutely cool shop to meet with him. He was very cordial, and to the point. He told me that he gets a lot of proposals because he involves himself in a lot of events held in Omaha. When he saw mine, he said he was immediately taken by it because it was put together so well and looked professional. He was also drawn in by the charity aspect of the event, and the fact that it was about a world record. Smitty himself is a Guinness World Record holder for most piercings in one person.
Well, I can’t tell you how glad I am to have met Smitty early in the process. There were a lot of things up in the air, and a lot of doubts flying around in my head. Smitty is a very positive person, and having broken a record himself, he encouraged me to go through with it and go all out, because it was one of the most fun things he had done. So he agreed to become a sponsor, and generously donated to the cause.
One thing I regret about meeting with Big Brain, though, and this was a learning experience for me. After he had already agreed to sponsor me, I told him who else I had as sponsors. When he learned that HEBE GB Tattoo was also on the list, he told me it is usually not a good idea to put more than one of the same types of business as a sponsor, because they are competitors, and it may look like they are affiliated. One other tattoo shop told me this before and dropped out, but then I finally got the picture. However, Smitty decided that it would be ok, and went ahead with it. So there is a tip for any of you out there who might be looking for sponsors, don’t put two businesses in the same field on the banner. It’s obvious to me now, but for some reason I didn’t think that way at the beginning. I was thinking more like a television show with commercials, you may see two commercials from different companies selling a similar product in a television show, but that’s not the way to think in this type of event.
Now I was completely confident. I was running around town, dropping off proposals, networking, and getting people excited about my record attempt. According to my emails, on September 28th, 2008, I created my World’s Tallest Mohawk email and MySpace accounts. On October 01, I had decided to hold the event sometime between Election Day and Thanksgiving, during a slow news period. That way there was a better chance of my record attempt getting news coverage. On October 8th, I contacted Clarice Zomer at Capitol School of Hair Styling. She was very excited about the idea, and I sent her a proposal to look over. A couple days later, Scott Mccaig, who is on the Board of Directors at Capitol, called up Todd Murphy. Todd was kind enough to let me put him as a reference in my proposals. He gave them a kind of legitimacy, so it didn’t look like I was just some kid who wasn’t serious about this event, or looking to rip people off. He and Scott had a great conversation, and thanks to Todd, Capitol School of Hairstyling was now the primary sponsor of the record breaking event. We set an appointment for me to go into Capitol and talk about holding the press conference there, do some test runs, and meet everyone who was going to help out.
Now things were rolling! I was very excited, and when I went to Capitol, I knew I had the right place. It was perfect. The people were great, it was an excellent venue for the press conference, and they were willing to help out with whatever I needed.
I have some good photos from the test runs, and the wonderful people at Capitol, so come on back soon to meet them, as well as some new sponsors. And just so ya know, this blog is not just about the sponsors, this is only the beginning. There are many other adventures to come, like the first test run that came out sideways, almost having to pee in front of a surveillance camera, and a tongue lashing from the Reader!