Hockey hair is a big deal.
The lettuce. The flow. Whatever you want to call it, there’s just something iconic and even majestic about the hairstyles that have become synonymous with hockey. I remember, when I was growing up, seeing Guy Lafleur skating down the ice, his hair billowing in the wind. I remember watching legends like Wayne Gretzky and Jaromír Jágr go full business-in-the-front, party-in-the-back in their mullet eras. Even during my time in the league, when Joe Thornton got drafted by the Bruins, I remember this big gangly kid who had these huge blonde curly locks flowing out of his helmet. Anyone who saw young Jumbo Joe must have been thinking the same thing: “That guy’s got pretty sweet flow.”
But what if you play hockey and your hair is different from nearly everyone else’s in the league? What if you’re Black? What if your hockey hair just so happens to be … dreadlocks?
Read more from Anson Carter, the Founding Chair of the NHL’s Player Inclusion Coalition at The Player’s Tribune.