The mane Reason

From guru-like long locks to a close-cropped Ghajini look,Team India’s revered captain M S Dhoni is also a hairstyle icon

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 stopped,admired,dusted the hair salon cape and walked 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 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 teacher in Std XI and XII at Jawahar Vidya Mandir,Ranchi. “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 M S Dhoni surprised everyone with his almost-bald look a day after India lifted the Cup,the people in his hometown 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 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 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 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 hair style.