Messi’s new ‘Platinum Blonde’ hair took the internet by storm recently as it received polar responses. While some fans were mesmerised with the ever-trending star, the trolls had a hearty time letting their creative juices flow and make many split their sides. A similar trend setter was witnessed here at home when Sanjay Dutt was spotted sporting a white-coloured ponytail. All this attention makes us wonder why Indian celebrities have always remained very conservative when it comes to hair.
Bollywood’s most popular style icon Ranveer Singh has experimented with his trademark moustache and ponytail. In the cricket world, Dhoni, once had straightened long hair and had also sported a Mohawk. Aren’t Indian celebs open to experiment with hair colour like Malinga or Jared Leto? Hairstylists Sapna Bhavnani and Clint Fernandez share some gyaan. Sapna, who sports the bleached look herself, doesn’t look to Bollywood for fashion.
“Bollywood has no space for actors who choose to sport crazy hair colours. There is no way they can experiment on their own because unlike actors in the West who do just one film at a given time, Bollywood stars work on up to five films at a time. And the films require the actor to look a certain way throughout the period of the shoot,” says the hairstylist, who has had celebrities Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra and M.S. Dhoni as clients. “And honestly, I don’t think any Bollywood star can even pull it off,” she adds.
Clint Fernandes agrees with Sapna and says that due to problems with continuity, actors don’t have the liberty to colour their hair. He says that actors would like to connect with their audience and the ‘relatable’ factor will be lost if the star does not look like just a better version of everyone else. “Even in the West, I think it is only sports stars who sport crazy hair, like Dennis Rodman who had orange and rainbow coloured hair,” he says, adding that even sports personalities in India cannot afford to do the same. “It is sad that out of the many able sports persons, only cricketers are considered important. Their PR managers advice them not to look too hatke, or they will not get any endorsement offers,” says Clint, who says that blonde hair doesn’t suit the Indian skin, so this trend may not pick up pace in the country.
For the women in the industry too, he says the plight is the same. “The maximum that has been done is by Katrina Kaif when she decided to dye her hair red, but that too was only for a role.” Every role needs some compromises and the cost of fame seems to be the abandonment of personal style. But celebs don’t seem to let it affect them as they walk the sets ever so fashionably, and the paparazzi can’t get enough of them.
