With all the renovations that have happened on Pac-12 facilities recently it should come as no surprise that many seem more like all-inclusive resorts than what most imagine as a locker room.
And one of the latest fads?
In-facility barbers chairs and barber shops so that players can cut players’ hair.
The only Pac-12 teams on which a player must venture outside of the program’s facilities to receive a haircut are: Arizona, Oregon State, Stanford and USC.
Oh the horror ...
That leaves eight programs that either have barber shops in-house or will have them within the next year (Colorado).
And it should come as no surprise that at most of these schools there is also a resident team barber. If you’re on Arizona State’s roster and you get your hair cut in the locker room, chances are it’s by freshman running back Kalen Ballage.
If you’re sitting in the barber chair at UCLA, you’d be in the hands of freshman defensive back Ron Robinson. In Utah’s “Chop Shop” you’d likely see sophomore tight end Siale Fakailoatonga and sophomore linebacker Pita Taumoepenu holding the clippers.
Redshirt senior cornerback Tracy Clark is the go-to guy at Washington State if you want a new ‘do. When Washington had a barbershop put into its facilities last fall, it was Josh Shirley who gave out the most haircuts, but since he transferred to UNLV in August, no new Husky has taken over as the resident hairstylist.
The most surprising Pac-12 barber is probably redshirt senior offensive lineman Hamani Stevens and it’s not because he’s not a skill position guy (though, there has to be some correlation between the two considering the barbers at other Pac-12 schools).
What’s most surprising about the offensive lineman being the go-to barber for Oregon is that by the looks of his own hair, it has been a while (read: maybe years?) since he has had a true haircut (disclaimer: he said he does trim his own hair from time to time).
But according to Stevens, one doesn’t necessarily need neat hair to make one’s hair neat. He says he can give a pretty close cut, if that’s what his teammates want.
Stevens learned the dos and do-not’s of ‘dos from his four older brothers but it all boils down to one rule: the end product needs to not look ridiculous. The exception here is his teammate, linebacker Dan Mattingly, who has had Stevens cut his hair into “The Boz” (Mohawk on top, mullet in the back), which is named for former Seattle Seahawks linebacker Brian Bosworth.
“After they get a haircut, if they’re looking really goofy then that’s going to come back to me and ruin my reputation,” Stevens said.
And so far, that has been a reputation he wants to protect.
Even with his chopping chops, there are a few players on the Ducks’ roster that won’t let Stevens near their hair (specifically, fifth-year senior safety Erick Dargan) and there are also players that he doesn’t want to go near (specifically graduated Oregon linebacker Kiko Alonso).
“That guy was the biggest prima donna you’ve ever met,” Stevens said of Alonso. “You’d think he’s a big tough guy but he is too picky with his hair. So I only cut his hair once and after I cut it that one time I said, ‘I’m never cutting your hair again.’ He’s so picky.”