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Updated at 7:15 a.m. Aug. 19 with final participation numbers and comment from Mayor Gaskins.
Publisher's note: I covered this event last year. This year my wife and I sponsored it and volunteered at it. A fuller note appears at the end of this story.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Thirty-seven children left Iye's Beauty Salon on Duke Street with fresh hairstyles and backpacks full of school supplies Tuesday, as Mayor Alyia Gaskins hosted the fourth annual Back-to-School Hair Salon ahead of the first day of classes.
The event, held at the West End salon at 4600 Duke St., has grown more than fourfold since its first year, when eight girls were served. Last year's salon served between 15 and 20. This year's total included two boys.
Participants were signed up through the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Community Lodgings and ACPS social workers — including those who work specifically with children experiencing homelessness.
Gaskins said the idea came from a gap she noticed while attending backpack drives around the city.
"There are often barbers to be able to take care of our young boys, but there aren't always stylists who have the ability to come and spend hours braiding our young girls," she said.
The initiative also grew out of the mayor's work on a gang prevention task force, where she learned that girls as young as nine were becoming involved in gang activity largely because of low self-esteem.
"Everyone deserves to look and feel their best on the first day of school," Gaskins said. "But more than that, so many of our families are navigating a lot of different situations, and one more expense just may not be possible. And so we help take care of that."
Beyond hairstyling, every child received a backpack filled with school supplies and a goodie bag of hair care products and accessories. Breakfast, lunch and snacks were served throughout the day, and families were sent home with food. Alexandria City Public Schools provided the backpacks.
Not everyone who came through the door Tuesday was on the list. Several parents arrived with children who hadn't signed up, and Gaskins worked to find room in a stylist's chair. When that wasn't possible, the mayor made sure the child left with a backpack. No one left without a warm meal.
"You never know what folks are navigating," Gaskins said in an email Wednesday. "With rising costs in our city, many folks are struggling to afford the things they need."
That marks a shift from last year's salon, when five girls from a nearby apartment building were turned away because the day was fully booked. Organizers said then that they hoped to recruit more stylists and braiders to expand capacity.
By midmorning Tuesday, the chairs were already full.
"We've got lots of folks already sort of getting in the chairs, getting started, and getting ready to pick the style of their dream," Gaskins said in a video posted the morning of the event.
Acting Superintendent Dr. Grace Taylor stopped by the salon Tuesday along with several ACPS staff members. It was one of Taylor's first public appearances since the School Board named her to lead the division on an acting basis Aug. 12, following Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt's earlier-than-planned departure. A 1987 graduate of what was then T.C. Williams High School, Taylor attended George Mason Elementary and George Washington Middle before returning to ACPS as a principal and, later, chief of staff.
Sponsors included the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, the Concrete Rose Scholarship Foundation and Just Fine Donuts, which provided breakfast. Gaskins also thanked residents Anna, Salima and Cassandra for contributing food and snacks, along with Cassandra Lewis and Ayah.
The Concrete Rose Scholarship Foundation, founded by Alexandria resident Andrea Walton, has sponsored the salon since last year. Walton, a former teen mother who went on to become an executive, started the foundation during the pandemic to fund scholarships for underrepresented girls.
Salon owner Iye Bayoh, who moved to Alexandria from West Africa, has hosted the event at her braiding parlor every year since it began.
ACPS opens the 2026-27 school year on Monday, Aug. 24.
Publisher's Note
I covered this event last year as a reporter. This year my wife, Jennifer, and I sponsored it and spent the afternoon volunteering.
I made that decision because of something I watched last August: a sixth-grader seeing herself in the mirror after her first professional hairstyle. Having grown up homeless, lived in foster care and been adopted as a teenager, I recognized what was happening on her face. It wasn't about hair. It was about someone deciding she was worth the investment.
You've just read a story about a room full of that. Alexandria has a mayor who spends the Tuesday before school starts making sure more than 30 girls know they're worth it. After watching it once, I didn't want to only write about it again.
— Ryan Belmore, Publisher
