Athletes and their Hair
It seems like an odd thing to focus on but a lot of athletes have some very strange hairstyles. A few of them become known for the way they style their hair and others like to experiment. It seems as if the more outrageous a player is the stranger the hairstyle becomes. Some of the greatest weird athletes of all time had some of the strangest haircuts to match their personalities. Examples abound such as Dennis Rodman, Mike Commodore, Scott Pollard and Troy Polamalu, who has recently been in the news after having his 3-foot mane insured for a million dollars. There looks to be no end to the crazy hairstyles that athletes will sport for our amusement and to further their own celebrity status.
Recently, Troy Polamalu, defender for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has had his hair insured by shampoo manufacturer Procter and Gamble. The American football player’s 3-foot long mop of hair has been insured for a whopping $1 million. The player of Samoan descent, has not cut his hair since 2000 and the curly huge mess on his head has won the player endorsement deals with shampoo companies in the past and prompted the consumer goods giant to protect his hair. The footballer’s hair has even gotten him in trouble when in 2006, he was tackled to the ground just before he was about to score a touchdown by his hair. An opponent yanked his long curly hair and down came the big defender. Over the years other athletes have also shown us that they can have some of the world’s craziest hairstyles.
For some reason it seems the odder the athlete and more flamboyant he is, the weirder his hair will be. During his illustrious career with many NBA teams, Dennis Rodman was one of the strangest basketball players to ever play the game. He was known for his outstanding rebounding skills, which allowed him to yank the ball out of the reach of players much taller and stronger than him. The other thing he was known for was his hairstyles. It seemed as if the basketball player would be sporting a new hairstyle during every single game. He was famous for dying his hair different colours. He changed the colour from green to blue to shocking pink to even having the Sesame Street character Bert drawn into his hair. He was one of the more colourful characters to ever play in the NBA and even though he was not the greatest player ever, he used his fame to get married to Carmen Electra, have a fling with Madonna and star in films in Hollywood.
An interesting sport that seems to rely on hairstyles is the MMA. In the brutal and violent world of mixed martial arts, a fighter’s attitude is what usually gives them the edge even before the match has started. One of the ways in which fighters seem to get an edge over their opponents is by having a fearsome haircut. A lot of athletes in the sport like to either have their head’s bald or closely shaved and then have menacing tattoos drawn onto their heads. Some like to grow outrageous Mohawks or spikes in order to mentally dominate an opponent. What is odd is that in the sport of MMA, two men are in a cage fighting each other and trying to pound the life out of one another. With that sort of environment, fear and domination really do not come into play. Both men are fearless and ready to take a pounding and dish out a pounding as well. A hairstyle may push the fight in one fighter’s favour.
We should not think that the era of strange hair is behind us, we will continue to see many athletes sporting the weirdest hairstyles that have ever been seen. One of the biggest reasons why they do push the boundaries in hairstyles could be because they want to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack. The more unique they are the more they get noticed and they might even end up getting a starting place on the team and also securing endorsements and sponsorship deals down the line. Sometimes it pays to be a bit daring with your hair, especially if you are an athlete.
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