Sport and exercise
Styles that stay put. 7 hairstyles on EveryHairstyle so far.
Sport needs hair that stays out of the eyes and holds through sweat, wind and water. Ponytails, French and Dutch braids, cornrows and buns are the standards for long hair; buzz cuts and fades for short. Some sports have their own hair: the sumo topknot, the long braids of many footballers and tennis players, and the mullets of ice hockey.
Styles that stay put
Two tight Dutch braids, sometimes called boxer braids, keep long hair secure for running, fighting and team sports and became popular in the 2010s. High ponytails and buns are common for tennis, gymnastics and netball; ballet and gymnastics require a smooth bun. Cornrows keep hair close to the head under helmets. Swimmers tuck hair under caps, and divers and water polo players often keep it short.
Sport and identity
Every sumo wrestler grows his hair into a chonmage, a rule of the sport. Footballers, basketball players and athletes have long started trends, from cornrows on the court to mohawks and dyed hair at World Cups. In ice hockey, the mullet is a long-running tradition, celebrated in contests in North America. Rules on hair in sport, such as bans on beads in some competitions, have been debated and in some cases changed.
Famous sport and exercise hairstyles
Further reading
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Mullet: Wordzandguitar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Cornrows: Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- French braid: Stilfehler, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Buzz cut: Fadi El Benni of Al Jazeera English, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Crew cut: greginhollywood, CC BY 2.0, source
- Chonmage: not listed, Public domain, source