The Mane Reason

Post the ICC Cricket World Cup win,Dhoni has got a new hairdo by shaving his head,well almost,keeping just a bristly growth intact. If it had been anyone else,Indian cricket fans would have admired and moved on. Instead,listen to this. “We have already had 15-20 customers since this morning asking for Dhoni’s hairstyle,” says Dhiraj Kumar,owner of the Kaya Salon in Ranchi,where Dhoni used to go for hairstyling in the initial days of his cricketing career. “He is a trendsetter,especially in Ranchi. He can carry off any style,” says Kumar. Well,who will disagree?

Certainly not Sarmistha Kumar,Dhoni’s class teachers in 11th and 12th standard at Jawahar Vidya Mandir. “With or without hair,he always looks very good. I remember him as a thin,quiet boy with short,slightly curly hair. It’s only later that I realised that he loves experimenting with hairstyles,” she says. If MS Dhoni surprised everyone with his almost-bald look a day after India lifted the Cup,the people in his home town Ranchi and everywhere else went on a speculative overdrive. Some allege that the captain is only fulfilling a vow that he took before a temple deity in Ranchi,in the presence of a priest,that he will offer his hair as thanks to the divine if the team won. Others blame it simply on the weather.

Unverified speculation aside,Dhoni,say fans is looking dapper. Considering that this is the same man who had arrived with long locks well highlighted,he has built a hair story over the years. Kumar of Kaya says,when Dhoni had his hair long,he would spend close to five hours at his salon. “We straightened and coloured his hair. The hairstyle won him praise from then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf who called him a stylish cricketer,” recalls Kumar,proudly adding that Dhoni would never interfere with a hair dresser’s job. The salon never allowed Dhoni to pay,though the cricketer would always insist.

Post the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007 though,Dhoni emerged with short hair,letting go of his high maintenance locks. Whether it was his impending marriage to Sakshi Rawat that provoked that decision or not,few could ever confirm. Now,as people all over India queue up to get “Dhoni jaise baal,” Kumar wishes that Mahi would come back home.

As then,a thick crowd would gather outside his salon with everyone asking to be templated into their hero’s hairstyle.