Word: Sakeus Bankson 2018-01-18 14:21:44
It’s raining when I arrive in Glacier, WA, a tiny town of just more than 200 people nestled in the mossy forests surrounding Highway 542. Precipitation is normal for the last stop on the way to Mt. Baker Ski Area. With an average annual snowfall of 641 inches, it’s the world’s snowiest resort.
What is unusual is the silver, pill-shaped trailer parked alongside the road, against a fence made of skis. Inside, a small marine stove kicks out heat, and the 1950s-esque decorations are both quaint and artsy. It’s a flash of glitz against the area’s unrelenting greenery.
This is the Hairstream Studio, started in 2008 by artist, researcher and stylist Joelle Adams. In the decade since, the 30-foot, 1968 Airstream Ambassador trailer has become a community gathering place, and—combined with the neighboring Glacier Ski Shop, which her husband John Adams co-owns—one of the most notable social hubs along the 50-some-mile drive from Bellingham to Mt. Baker.
But above all, the Hairstream has become known for giving damn good haircuts.
Joelle got into hair styling in the 1990s, finishing cosmetology school before working at Aveda salons in her hometown of Seattle. They were good jobs, but Joelle missed the mountains, and in the late 1990s she left Seattle to do bird research for an environmental consulting firm. The job was largely based out of Glacier, and after a few months she’d fallen in love—with the place, and with John, who had recently finished building the ski shop with his brother Drew.
“I believe in flow,” Joelle says, “in looking for spiritual signposts telling you you’re in the right place at the right time. It seemed when I came to Glacier there was flow. I was enchanted.”
Joelle was not a skier at the time, but she rode almost every day the following winter on a snowboard her grandmother found in a ditch. By the next fall, she told John she was ready for the backcountry. In response, John pulled a pair of tele skis off the fence behind the shop. Twelve years later, she still telemarks.
John and Joelle married in 2005, and Joelle was ready for more stable work—difficult to attain in Glacier, where quality of life is as bountiful as job opportunities are meager. Noticing a lack of hair stylists in the area, she revived an idea from her Aveda days: a mobile studio, which she could also tow to festivals and weddings. John already had a trailer. His father had purchased the Airstream in 1975, and, in 2001, John brought it to Glacier from Lopez Island, WA. In 2008, Joelle and John gutted the trailer, parked it against the ski fence, and opened for business.
The first few years were uncertain, but Joelle was persistent, and soon she was booked out days in advance, with regulars coming from as far away as Seattle. Over the years, she’s also discovered some spooky connections to the property. The spot is rumored to have been a cemetery in the late 1800s, and a man named “Miner Bill” lived in a similar model Airstream on the same corner.
“It’s sacred ground, and I treat it as such,” Joelle says. “There aren’t many community gathering places here, and the Hairstream has served as this sacred little vessel, where people meet and make connections in a positive and intentional way.”
Ten years in, the Hairstream has become a landmark. Joelle has cut back to three days a week, to take care of their 8-year-old son Jade, and is considering hiring a second hair stylist. She’s also branched into other projects, like teaching kids’ painting classes in nearby Lynden, and has plans to convert a house behind the ski shop into an art gallery. She’d like to build a more mobile version of the Hairstream, but for now she’s content to be a roadside attraction, a place to stop for a haircut and good conversation.
“I do this ritual every night when I’m locking up,” Joelle says. “I say ‘thank you’ three times before I close the door because I still feel so grateful and lucky to be living here with this quality of life. It blows my mind sometimes.”
To schedule an appointment at the Hairstream, visit Joelle’s website at www.thehairstream.com.
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A Sacred Little Vessel
https://digital.theskijournal.com/articles/a-sacred-little-vessel