Lionel Messi shocked the world this summer — and not because he temporarily retired from international play. The 28-year-old Argentine made his fans’ jaws drop when he showed up for Barcelona’s preseason rocking a newly bleached blond ‘do.
Now, Messi’s Barcelona teammates Neymar and Rafinha, both fresh off Brazil’s gold medal performance at the Rio Olympics, have bleached their hair, as well.
Meanwhile, over at Arsenal, star striker Aaron Ramsey debuted a new look of his own. Gone are his usually bleached blond locks in favor of a grayer ‘do he dubbed “Silver Linings.”
It’s, um, interesting, as several fans have pointed out.
But what gives? Why, of all the sports, does soccer seem to attract men who feel the need to always get creative with their hair?
Former LA Galaxy player Troy Roberts has some answers.
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“Differentiation and distinction,” Roberts wrote in a 2014 blog post for Opening Ceremony, a boundary-pushing clothing boutique and brand. Those are the “defining factors that give the eccentric hairstyle tradition in soccer its backbone.”
The trend is not new. Roberts traces it back to the mid-’90s when stars like Alexi Lalas looked like a Phish roadie.
Argentina’s Claudio Caniggia also had a few interesting looks over the years.
Colombia’s Rene Higuita was unmistakable with his long curly locks.
In fact, before Messi, Neymar and Rafinha got the idea to have matching blond heads, the entire 1998 Romanian World Cup team bleached theirs.
“The artistic expression of hairstyles will continue to grow as the norm,” Roberts predicted in 2014 and, so far, he’s right.
Now if only Luis Suarez would get on board…
https://twitter.com/therealfanatix/status/757846005228240897
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