The Mane Reason

Post the ICC Cricket World Cup win,Mahendra Singh 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 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,” says Kumar. Well,who will disagree? Certainly not Sarmistha Kumar,Dhoni’s class teacher in the 11th and 12th standards at Jawahar Vidya Mandir. “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 M S Dhoni surprised everyone with his almost-bald look a day after India lifted the Cup,the people in his home town Ranchi and every where 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 that 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 the then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf,” recalls Kumar proudly.

However,in 2007,after lifting the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa,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. When that happens,a thick crowd would gather outside his salon with everyone asking to be templated into their hero’s hairstyle.