The trick is to Style hair when it's pliable

Janey Swanson is amazed by one of the world’s wackiest contests, held on the north-western tip of Canada.

Evey winter, the International Hair Freezing Contest is held at Eclipse Nordic Hot Springs in the Yukon whenever the temperature dips below 20 degrees Celsius.

“In such bitterly cold temperatures, wet hair freezes in minutes,” Andrew Umbrich explains.

Andrew is General Manager of Eclipse Hot Springs, a popular spa in the Yukon mountains that uses mineral water from underground hot springs in its outdoor pools.

“In winter, the air temperature in Yukon can be as low as minus fifty degrees Celsius, and as the water from the hot springs Takhini Hot Springs is usually about forty-two degrees, steam rises from the geothermal pools.

“We realised a few years ago that, when it was incredibly cold, people relaxing in the pools often had frozen hair.

“This was due to steam collecting on their hair, turning into frost and then ice.

“We decided to make the most of this phenomenon and, in 2011, held the first Hair Freezing Contest.”

The contest was very much a local competition until 2015, when a photo of one of the contestants was shared online and went viral.

“Hundreds of millions of people saw that photo,” Andrew says.

“Now about three hundred people travel here every year from all over the world to take part in our unique and now international competition!”

Contestants in the International Hair Freezing Contest have to sit in one of the spa’s geothermal pools until their hair freezes at which point they mould, twist and bend their hair into the wildest creations possible.