What does your dad do on his nights off? The answers probably range from sitting on the couch and watching TV, to making dinner or going golfing with friends. However, the answer is probably not going to a pub to learn how to braid hair.

The whole idea started with ‘Secret Life of Dads’ podcasters Mathew Lewis-Carter and Lawrence Price, both proud fathers themselves. After Carter was put in charge of doing his daughter’s hair, he realized he had a lot to learn. 

“I just remember her hair looked like she’d been dragged through a bush backwards,” he said. “My partner wasn’t there and I sent Lawrence a message just saying ‘I think we should learn how to plait or do our daughters’ hair and we could do it in a pub and we can call it pints and ponytails’.”

The first ‘Pints and Ponytails’ event took place in February 2026 at the Local Saint Marylebone pub and was hosted by trainers from Braid Maidens who walked the couple dozen dads who showed up through different hairstyles including ponytails, pigtails, and different kinds of braids. Each dad practiced on a mannequin with support for the trainers and the other dads around them.

The events were set up not only for dads to learn how to do their daughter’s hair, but also to create a space for dads from every background and relationship situation to gather and talk about the joys and hardships of fatherhood. Carter and Price’s podcast ‘The Secret Life of Dads’ was created for the same reason.

“It all came about through our own struggles in the first year of fatherhood. I struggled with post-natal depression, which I didn’t even realise dads could get,” said Carter. “Lawrence struggled with anxiety and burnout… I think a lot of what parenthood, fatherhood especially, is painted as is that when your child comes into the world, there’s this instant sense of love and bond and for me personally, it wasn’t there… So I wanted to set up a platform for dads to understand more about this.”

Attendees of the events have lots of reasons for showing up, but they mostly boil down to wanting a way to connect with their daughters and looking for a support group for when fatherhood becomes a lot.

“I just want to bond with my daughter more,” said attendee Paul Jessup. “I’ve never been in a room like this before, but I’m happy to be here. My daughter is only one but we are really close… I see other people playing with their daughter’s hair, I just want to be able to do that.”

“There is such a huge appetite for these events,” said Mike Perry, another ‘Pints and Ponytails’ attendee. “For men to get together and talk about their mental health, and just be unashamedly proud to look out after daughters, it’s so special.”

Online videos after the first event quickly went viral to mixed reviews. Positive comments including messages like “a room full of green flags”, “this is what generational healing looks like”, and “this needs to be nationwide” poured in by the thousands.

Other not-so-positive reviews were taken in stride. Social Media personality Andrew Tate commented on one video about the group “White men will never have nations ever again. Simply a cucked race.” The group responded by temporarily renaming themselves “Cucks and Ponytails” and one Instagram user responded to Tate’s comment with “he’s jealous because he has no hair.”

“If being a more present dad and a better partner is your insult, we’ll take it every time!” Carter and Price posted to Instagram in response to Tate’s comment.

Carter and Price also held a “Periods and Ponytails” event in early June, partnering with Fluxxbox, a menstrual health company that makes “first-period kits” for young girls and their parents. A Fluxxbox representative led dads through a PowerPoint on period basics, the menstrual cycle, diva cups and more, and passed around pads and tampons so the dads could take a closer look. The event ended with more hairstyling lessons.

“Periods shouldn’t be a mum topic; they’re a parenting topic,” The Secret Life of Dads posted on Instagram. “A daughter who knows her dad won’t flinch or hand the conversation over to mum is a daughter who hopefully grows up with a positive outlook on men.”

Carter and Price’s idea has now spread internationally, with groups in Australia, Lithuania, the USA, and more.

“The optics of the event is dads are learning new skills to honour their daughters, but beyond that I think it hits something so much deeper,” said Carter. “One dad in Manchester had lost his partner and is raising his daughter by himself. There’s dads going through divorces, dads who had their own mental health journeys, but it just felt like it feels like a really safe space for dads to open up and talk. I think men get such a bad rep all the time about not talking, but I just think they just need a safe space and the right place to do it. It turns out a room full of mannequins and pints somehow seems to be doing that.”