Teacher Does Student's Hair After Tragic Parent Loss

Alice Yates noticed something heartbreaking: one of her elementary students was coming to school with messy, unbrushed hair every day after suddenly losing a parent. The teacher knew she had to do something.

Yates bought an inexpensive comb and some hair ties so she could at least pull the grieving student's hair into a simple ponytail each morning. It was a small gesture meant to help one child through an impossibly difficult time.

But something beautiful happened. Other girls in the class noticed Yates doing their classmate's hair and asked if she would do theirs too.

Now the morning hair routine has become a daily tradition. During breakfast, Yates sits with her students, braiding and styling while they chat about their lives. She says she wouldn't trade this time for anything because it has brought the whole class closer together.

Yates was initially nervous about how parents might react to her doing their children's hair at school. Then she received a message from a parent who was traveling that put her mind at ease. "I just FaceTimed with my daughter and saw her hair. It was adorable. Thank you for being extra sweet to my girl while I'm away," the parent wrote.

The teacher explains that she loves being the educator she needed when she was growing up. Many of her childhood teachers simply showed up, taught from textbooks, and went home without really connecting with students. School filled her with anxiety because she rarely felt safe or happy in the classroom.

Those difficult experiences shaped the teacher she became. Yates pours her heart and soul into teaching now, finding comfort in looking parents in the eyes and promising to truly take care of their children.

Sunny's Take

One commenter shared how their third grade teacher brought barrettes when their father nearly died in a motorcycle accident, leaving no one to help them get ready for school. They'll never forget the difference that simple kindness made. Another viewer whose child is in Yates' class wrote that their daughter talks about morning hair time constantly.

This is what teaching really looks like when someone understands that education is about so much more than academics.