The Struggle Was Real for The Loper Family on New Series ‘Back to the Frontier’

In the series, three families are sent into the wilderness — surrounded by ten thousand acres of nature and without any modern technology, running water, or electricity. The families all spent eight weeks working together to reinforce their own shelters, collect food, raise livestock, and control the distribution of their resources, to varied levels of success.

Participating in the series are Stacey and Joaquin Loper, who got real with TooFab about the difficulties that came with letting go of their everyday living situation, what they learned during this experience … and the unique haircare challenges they faced in the wild.

“The weight and the amount of work you’re getting done in the 1880s does not even compare to what we can do in the 21st century,” Joaquin, whose two sons also joined them on the adventure, said. “It showed my boys that ‘Man, what you put your mind to, you can really do.'”

In the show, participants have to give up their gadgets and remove all makeup and piercings before they head out to the frontier. For this family of five — including Stacy, Joaquin, 14-year-old son Landen and 12-year-old son Maddox and Joaquin’s mother — letting go wasn’t as difficult for the adults as it was for the kids.

“Oh, it felt great for me,” Joaquin told TooFab. “I didn’t have any scam calls to receive. No one had truly access to me. I missed SportsCenter. But it was great for me … not so much for our kids.”

“For me, it was a struggle because I do a lot of business via social media, technology and things like that. So it gets kind of taking myself away from all of the noise and being pulled on,” Stacey explained.

“Eventually I adjusted to that rather quickly,” she added, “because it was like I’m not being pulled on emotionally, mentally. I can be here for my family.”

When asked what modern amenity they missed most, Stacey was quick to quip, “My living situation, period.”

“Cooking, cleaning all of that, like, ‘Oh, can we please hurry through this?’ And it wasn’t a hurry through this type of experience though. It was you are completely submerged into all of this 1880s living,” she revealed. “I could want and those desires could be so heavy for these 21st century conveniences. But they’re not coming.”

“So what do you have to do? It’s a shift in mindset that has to happen, and the quicker you have a shift of mindset, the quicker that you’re able to adapt to where you are,” she added.

Stacey told TooFab that she didn’t mind giving up her makeup since she doesn’t frequently use it – but managing her hair was another story, admitting it left her feeling “insufficient”

“We could talk about hair all day long, but baby, this hair, I struggled,” she exclaimed with a laugh. “When I tell you I woke up every day like ‘Oh no!’ Yeah my hair, totally different story. The makeup, not a big thing.”

Joaquin, however, said the couple’s sons helped her through that.

“I think our boys made it very, very convenient for her not to think about it,” he explained. “My 12-year-old, especially, he gets on my nerves. He just walked to the mom. He’s like, ‘You’re so pretty.’ ‘I’m like what you want. What do you want?'”

“And he did that throughout the experience which I really think helped her get over, you know, probably self-consciously, some of the things she felt, especially with that hair.”

The couple had a lot of sweet moments with their kids, overall, with Joaquin recalling what touched him the most.

“I’d say the most precious moments for both of them was Landen stepping up and leading during harvest time, him showing his leadership, something I’ve always tried to instill in them or our kids period,” he explained.

“But the show really gave me the opportunity to see it come out of them. They got a chance to see their voice and their leadership rise to the occasion for the family, not just for them as individuals,” he proudly added.

“My 12-year-old, to see his passion in baking, to see his passion and love for his mom, that he shows all the time, it meant so much more to me on the show,” he continued. “So to show their leadership or to see their leadership just expound, and for now the world to be able to see, to know that we, as parents, have instilled some of these good values in them, that that was everything for me.”

The series premieres July 10 on HBO Max and Same Day on Magnolia Network at 8/7c, new episodes every Thursday.