The way things are going, Debra Jennings might have to change her nickname from Braider Deb to the Skater Braider.

Jennings has emerged from a much-publicized tangle with the State Board of Cosmetology to become one of the most coveted sets of hands in the Midwest figure skating circuit.

At least twice a month, Jennings loads up her supplies — combs, gel, rubber bands, hair spray, hand cleanser, Barbicide, tiny flowers and other adornments — and travels to figure skating competitions across the Midwest to interlace the locks of young, competitive skaters.

It’s not a light load.

She sees a new head of tresses every 15 minutes for 10 hours a day. After three or four days, her hands are sore and her carpal tunnel is flaring.

But her dedication has paid off. Jennings has been invited to braid hair at the 2004 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Atlanta from Jan. 3-11, 2004. More than 150 skaters from across the United States will compete at the event, known to skaters simply as “Nationals.” The best of the best will qualify for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy.

“I feel lucky,” Jennings said of the invitation. “I feel real fortunate.”

Out of a tangle

Those who don’t know the Lawrence lock maven by name are likely to have heard about her as one half of the Braiden Maidens, the duo that hit a snag a few years ago with the State Board of Cosmetology.

Jennings and her partner, Wendy Moody of Bonner Springs, had been plaiting hair at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival for five years when the board ruled in 1999 that they must cease braiding because they were not licensed cosmetologists and might be creating unsanitary conditions.

State Rep. Tom Sloan and then-Sen. Sandy Praeger rallied around the Braiden Maidens and helped push a bill through the Legislature that allowed them to continue their Ren Fest business.

Debra Jennings, lawrence, right, takes one last look at a braid she has woven into Gail Sloan's hair. Jennings, who a few years ago fought the State Board of Cosmetology for the right to braid at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, has been invited to plait tresses at the 2004 U.S. Figure Skating Championships from Jan. 3-11, 2004, in Atlanta.

During the exhausting ordeal, Jennings said people from all walks of life reached out to her, including licensed cosmetologists.

“We even had little old farmers come out and say, ‘We just wanted to tell you we think you’re great,'” she said.

The farmers weren’t the only ones.

When the Maidens’ booth re-opened at the fair, the demand for their handiwork was so high that they braided for several weeks by car headlight long after the Ren Fest had closed for the evening.

From Renaissance to ice rink

Seven years ago, a girls’ skating team called from Oklahoma, where Jennings had braided hair at the Muskogee Ren Fest. They wanted her to braid their hair when they traveled to Kansas City for their next competition.

Jennings wasn’t sure there would even be enough girls to make it worth her while. She quickly learned that wouldn’t be the case.

“I got slammed,” she said. “They were surrounding me.”

That was the beginning of her skater braiding career. Word spread, and she’s now braiding hair at competitions in six states. Skaters call her by name: Braider Deb.

“I love the girls. It’s like your family just keeps enlarging,” Jennings said. “If they win a medal, they always come back and say, ‘I think it’s because of the hair.'”

Lawrence hair braider Debra Jennings carries these examples with her to renaissance festivals and figure skating tournaments, where she makes a living braiding hair. She has been invited to plait at the 2004 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

After all, appearances count in figure skating.

“Hair’s a really big thing. They’re real perfectionists. The girls like to go out there feeling like they’re on top of the world. They just do a better job when they’re from head to toe perfect,” Jennings said. “The judges look at it as well.”

A little breakthrough

If all goes as planned, Jennings’ work will be paraded before a panel of national judges.

Last June, at a competition in Denver, she was approached by a woman on the Atlanta organizing committee who asked if she would be interested in braiding at Nationals. Jennings, not all that familiar with the world of figure skating, had no idea the caliber of the request.

When she found out there probably would be just 15 or 20 girls, she said she couldn’t possibly justify the expense of traveling to Atlanta. But then the woman told Jennings she would be a paid member of the support staff and that the Nationals were the televised qualifying grounds for the 2006 Winter Olympics.

“Then I turned into Gomer Pyle,” Jennings said, laughing. “I couldn’t believe it. … Even if you don’t do it, it’s an honor if they ask you.”

And she’s hoping she can help ignite a fad.

“I’ve watched a lot of ice skating since I’ve started going to the competitions,” she said. “You don’t see on TV anybody with their hair braided. Hopefully, it will be a little breakthrough.”