She grew up playing with her dolls’ hair, but now Lohifa Pogoson-Acker is designing the manes of some high-profile cats — the Grey Cup-bound Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“Oskee Wee Wee,” the 36-year-old Nigerian-Canadian yelled in her home hair studio, wearing a black sweater with a gold cardigan.
“All week I’m going to be wearing these colours. All week. I don’t care if I have to wear the same clothes all week, I want that energy going, that winning energy going.”
With the Grey Cup game against Winnipeg Blue Bombers this Sunday, she’s seen notable names walk through her front door this week, including Bralon Addison, Dave Watford, Don Jackson, Tim White, Papi White and Chris Frey Jr. — all players who will have final team practices and the CFL awards Friday evening before the big CFL game.
Papi White’s hair this week after seeing hairstylist Lohifa Pogoson-Acker and local barber Yoshi Al. (Submitted by Lohifa Pogoson-Acker)
Such a big week comes with the need for a special ‘do.
“I like to consider myself a specialty stylist. What I do involves pattern styling, so we can do cornrows, we can do twists, some of them have dreadlocks … I style their locks, I interlock them or retwist them and do them with those,” she said.
While she may be busy styling high-profile clients, Pogoson-Acker has only been doing hair full time for two years.
Before that, she grew up in Nigeria and the U.K., where she styled hair of family, friends and fellow students in boarding school. She said she also worked in family salons and even ran her own out of her parent’s garage as a side hustle after they immigrated to Vancouver in 2000.
Her full-time work included international development and health-system strengthening overseas before landing in Hamilton in 2012 to work as a project coordinator at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.
She said former Ticat Adrian Tracy approached Pogoson-Acker after hearing a glowing endorsement of her hairstyling.
She impressed Tracy, who later brought in then Ticat Nikita Whitlock.
Fast forward two years. Pogoson-Acker decided to try hairstyling full time out of her home on the Mountain, and said she’s worked with about 20 Ticats now, past and present.
After spending up to four hours styling their hair, she sends them to local barbers Yoshi Al and Jayy Way Fade, who cut the players’ hair.
‘Simply a joy to be around’
Ticat running back Don Jackson, also known as hip-hop artist Don Jayy, called Pogoson-Acker “extremely talented.”
“She absolutely kills it — not just my hair, but most of our guys,” he said, after getting a fresh style this week.
He praised her work on his Instagram account, thanking her for “pulling a last-minute miracle.”
“She’s simply a joy to be around,” he told CBC Hamilton.
WATCH: Lohifa Pogoson-Acker talks about hair-styling Ticats
This woman is a hairstylist for Hamilton Tiger-Cat players
9 hours ago
Duration 1:06
For the past two years, more than a dozen Ticats have trusted Lohifa Pogoson-Acker with their hair. 1:06
While Ticat players work in a high-pressure environment, Pogoson-Acker said she tries to help relieve their stress by not talking too much about football.
Sometimes, she plays some of Don Jayy’s music, and other times they’re cracking jokes and sharing life stories.
“We have fun over here … when you walk in, positive vibes only,” she said with a beaming smile.
“They come here looking a certain way and the leave here looking so much better, feeling so much better, just loving themselves so much more, feeling more confident and that’s my goal for anyone sitting in this chair.”
Pogoson-Acker holds her favourite ilarun — a wooden comb. She sharpens the comb with a razor blade and says she always tries to use it when styling. (Bobby Hristova/CBC)
But Pogoson-Acker does have one more thing in common with her Ticat clients — the desire to win the Grey Cup.
She said she hopes her styling gives them a confidence, energy and beauty boost before Sunday’s final.
“They’ve worked so hard, they’re so inspired, they’re so, so ready to get out there and win,” she said.
“I see a brand-new energy in this city surrounding the Grey Cup … but I really want everyone to encourage these boys as much as they can.”
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
