Move over, mullets. Bleach blonde is the new high school playoffs hair trend.
For all the bright spots on Islands’ state champion soccer team, nothing shone brighter than its golden hairdos flopping around the pitch.
The Sharks picked a good year to join a relatively new vogue sweeping high school spring sports: athletes bleaching their hair blonde at the start of the playoffs.
Several coaches figure the trend began about five years ago. Its exact origins are unknown, but bleaching has become a postseason custom for several sports.
“I kind of think it’s just a mandatory thing,” North Paulding shortstop Cade Cox said. “Once you get to the playoffs, you’ve got to bleach.”
Ridiculous hairstyles are as synonymous with high school playoffs as team hotels and three-hour bus rides. Before the bleach, DIY mullets, mohawks and buzz cuts were popular.
Islands soccer coach Justin Brantley figures the trend started in baseball and permeated to other sports. The fifth-year coach has led his team to the playoffs every year of his tenure, but this postseason was the first that his team joined the fun.
Islands’ lack of bleaching experience was obvious, too — many players bleached their own hair, resulting in an orange hue.
“They found the first box that they could at Walmart and stuck their head in a bucket and tried to go at it that way,” Brantley said. “There were two guys who actually went and had it professionally done, and they looked really good.”
Bleaching became a means of supporting the soccer team as Islands’ chance at its first state title improved with every win.
“You kind of started to see a trend around the school to where random kids were just bleaching their hair,” Brantley said. “It was kind of like a way to bring guys together who weren’t normally part of the program but kind of wanted to be part of the program.”
Hair bleaching is a big decision for some high school kids. Etowah outfielder Deion Cole’s team is almost entirely blonde, but he remembered several seniors initially rejecting the trend when he was a sophomore.
“We all came to practice the next day with blonde hair, and I guess they had FOMO of not having blonde hair,” Cole said. “So they kind of fell into it and just did it.”
Cambridge’s state champion lacrosse team innovated the bleach this postseason. The Bears added a little extra school spirit to their look this spring.
“Our seniors bleached their hair, but in the back part of their hair that hangs out of their helmet, they did a different color, like a blue,” Cambridge coach Aaron Darling said.
As absurd as it may seem, postseason bleaching is more than senseless teenage behavior. It’s a team-building exercise before the most important stretch of the spring sports season.
“Connection was a huge word for us this year, being collective and being together as much as possible, and I think that had a definitely huge factor in how the boys were connected,” Brantley said. “It was one of those things that you could tell who really cares by the fact that, ‘Hey, I’m willing to do whatever it takes, even if I look ridiculous in some photos or even if my girlfriend or my parents aren’t a huge fan of it.’
“I’m doing this for the team and for a collective group.”
North Paulding third baseman Lawson Sheffield was nervous the first time he had to do it in 2023. The freshman had never had blonde hair before, but several upperclassmen bleached their hair with him, and he loved it.
“Probably my favorite thing about playoffs is the hair, and my freshman year, I had probably the whitest bleached hair out of everybody,” Sheffield said. “I got made fun of for that, but no, it’s definitely one of the coolest things I think that’s a part of playoff baseball.”
About the Author
Jack Leo is a sports writer and reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Jack worked for the AJC throughout his four years studying journalism and sports media at Georgia State University and the University of Georgia. He's now focused on telling stories in the grassroots: bringing comprehensive coverage of high school sports for AJC Varsity.
