Hair loss is a tough pill to swallow for anyone, especially an NBA star. It’s a brief reminder of your mortality every time you stare into the picture. It’s easy to see why men go to such great lengths to cover it up.
A few years ago, Carlos Boozer used an extreme measure to mimic the appearance of lush hair follicles. Instead, Boozer got a head full of what appeared to be black shoe polish. His shiny dome was on full display during a nationally televised game and nothing was the same. Boozer was kind enough to revisit that hilarious decision with Bomani Jones and Dan Le Batard on Highly Questionable:
Dan Le Batard: “What was going on with your hair that day?”
Boozer: “Oh man. Man, listen, so … truth be told, as you can tell, I started losing my hair a little bit…”
Bomani: “I know the struggle. I’m with you.”
Boozer: “…they came out with this — it’s like a hair dye, whatever, for men called the ‘bigen.’ Well, I had one guy that was like, ‘Yo, have you ever thought about growing your hair out?’ And I was like, yeah, I was thinking about it, until I saw some of these little bald spots on my head. So, I was like, you know, I just cut my hair off. And so he was telling me that he could — you know, ‘grow your hair out, I could cover it up a little bit, and make it look like you got a regular haircut.’ So I tried it, and he just made my stuff look like shoe polish up there … this is like five years later, and I’m still hearing about it.”
Bomani: “Oh yeah! You’re gonna hear about it till the end!”
Boozer: “I still get this!”
Bomani: “We’ve been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to figure out how to work it in!
[Boozer laughs]
Bomani: “You know, we didn’t want to hurt your feelings! But, you know, it was a thing!”
Boozer: “I done heard it from my teammates, from my girl, from all my homies growing up, so it ain’t nothing I haven’t already talked about. You know, I was trying to get my hairline back. A lot of guys do it. I’m not gon’ snitch or drop no names, but a lot of guys do it.”
We would like those names, Carlos. Kudos to Boozer for being a good sport about this. It was a hilariously bizarre situation that needed answers. His hair story starts at the 3:10 marker on the video, but his entire interview with Jones and LeBetard is great.
(via Highly Questionable; h/t SB Nation)
