The hockey haircut, perfected: NHLers react to a youth player’s ‘genius’ method
Sarah Rodriguez Rita Schenn, the mother of NHL players Brayden and Luke Schenn, is a hairstylist who once had a full salon with a sink and hydraulic chair in the basement of the family’s home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
When her boys were growing up, she would receive every request imaginable when it came to styles and colors.
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“I had the hockey hair back in the day — everyone did, whether it was a mullet or you were dyeing it for the playoffs, or whatever you did at that age,” said Brayden Schenn, the St. Louis Blues’ captain.
And, as Mom recalled, whatever older brother Luke did, Brayden wanted, too.
“You name it, and we’ve done it,” Rita Schenn said. “One time I dyed Luke’s hair bright orange for one team, and if they were doing it on Luke’s team, you’re darn right Brayden, all of a sudden, was bleaching his hair.
“Being a stylist, lots of kids bring in pictures of what they want, especially hockey haircuts, like mullets or racing stripes. It’s funny, kids always say, ‘I need hockey flow. It’s got to flow.’ They react off each other, for sure.”
So both Brayden and Rita Schenn say they’ve seen it all, but that turned out not to be true when they were shown a picture of Sawyer Coleman, a 9-year-old who plays for the Meramec Sharks Hockey Club in the suburbs of St. Louis.
It’s not so much Coleman’s haircut — a standard mullet with curls in the back — as how he gets it cut. He wears his hockey helmet in the salon chair.
“One time I searched up ‘hockey hair’ on my phone,” Coleman said. “It said a mullet, and I really liked it because I thought it would go out of my helmet and stick up when I’m skating really fast.
“I started getting my haircuts without the helmet, and one day I was like, ‘I don’t want them to cut off my curls.’ So my dad got my helmet, and I was like, ‘Oh, they could cut it where it still hangs out!”
Now, for the past two years, about every three weeks, Coleman has slipped into a local salon looking like he’s headed to a hockey game. But when he sits down in the chair, instead of parents and fans watching him, it’s amused fellow customers looking on from the lobby.
“I’ve never once put my helmet on to get a haircut,” Brayden Schenn said, laughing. “That’s a funny one!”
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“I’ve never heard of that,” Mom said. “That is bizarre bringing a helmet in. At 9 years old, he knows it’s exactly what he wants, and to be brave enough to go to the salon with his helmet, it’s so funny. They just must laugh when he comes in.”
To check out the unique scene and get the reaction of the stylist, The Athletic tagged along with Coleman on a recent trip to get his mullet cleaned up at Sport Clips in St. Louis.
Mullets were as popular as ever in the NHL in the 1980s, and, ironically, it was ’80s day at the salon when Coleman and his dad, Greg, walked in and introduced themselves to stylist Natalie Schmittgens.
Schmittgens had her own ’80s look down, wearing a brightly colored blouse with a pink headband wrapped around her poofy hair.
“What do we have here, a hockey player?” Schmittgens asked.
“Yeah!” Coleman said.
“What are we going to do?” she asked.
“I’m basically going to put on the helmet and you’re going to cut the curls where they’re still showing, so they’re still, like, out,” he said.
Schmittgens told Coleman she was up for the challenge.
“OK, we can do that, come on back and have a seat here,” she said.
Coleman put on the helmet and a cape, a sight to see for anyone walking in the front door.
“So how much are we going to take off?” Schmittgens asked.
They agreed on a length, and she went to work with her scissors.
Dad watched from a few feet away, recalling how this all came to be.
“My wife and I were trying to get Sawyer to go high and tight, and he was like, ‘No!’” Dad said.
“I would not agree with them and said, ‘We’re not doing that!’” Coleman said.
Before Schmittgens, the first stylist to be hit with the request of cutting his hair with a helmet was before a game in Chicago.
“She thought it was cool and liked it!” Coleman said.
A few minutes into her first experience, what did Schmittgens think?
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“I enjoy it!” she said. “Actually, the mullets are coming back. I have a 5-year-old and 4-year-old, and they like the long curls and shaved on the side. It’s the style.”
As Schmittgens spritzed and snipped away, she was asked if the helmet helped her not take off too much.
“Yeah, but I still take my time,” she said. “It doesn’t get in the way because there’s plenty of hair sticking out.”
Schmittgens finished up the back of Coleman’s hair, careful to make sure she didn’t cut too much.
“OK, that’s a light dusting,” she said.
A hand mirror was then put behind Coleman’s head, showing him how it looked.
“Really good!” he said.
Before she continued with the rest of the haircut, Coleman needed some help.
“Dad, can you come take my helmet?” he said.
“Sure, buddy!” Dad said, grabbing his gear.
“Yeah, you don’t want to get hair on it,” Schmittgens joked.
After getting a bit of a spike on top, Coleman decided to have some lines shaved into the sides.
First, Schmittgens drew the lines on his hair with a blue marker. Then she used her razor to shave the lines before washing off any remaining color with a wet washcloth.
“He’s eccentric and definitely has a flare for the dramatic,” Dad said. “He’s the guy that’s shooting the arrow and hot-dogging on his goal celebrations. I can guarantee you that in a minute he’s going to ask me for the hot-towel treatment.”
On cue, Coleman started chanting “MVP! MVP!” which is the name of the package at the salon that includes a shampoo finish, hot-towel treatment and a neck and shoulder massage.
Dad obliged, and the pampering began.
“He deserves the spoiling,” Schmittgens said. “I’m just going to brush it again quickly, though, in case the paparazzi takes another picture. This guy is going to be a famous St. Louis Blues player. Sawyer Coleman, don’t forget his name!”
Of course, no trip to the salon would be complete without a sweet treat on the way out.
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“Can I get a sucker?” Coleman asked.
“Of course,” Schmittgens said.
“I got my favorite! Peach!” Coleman said.
Schenn wasn’t the only Blues player to get a kick out of this — or to be impressed by the creative method.
“It’s smart because you know exactly how it’s going to look,” forward Oskar Sundqvist said. “It’s slightly genius, actually.”
“They were going to cut it too short?” defenseman Scott Perunovich asked. “That’s just the new generation — smarter than us, I guess.”
“It’s awesome,” defenseman Torey Krug said. “You’ve got to be precise, by any means necessary.”
“That’s unreal,” forward Jake Neighbours said. “The only look that matters is the look on the ice, so that’s pretty cool.”
For some of the elder Blues, there may be a bit of jealousy because they either can’t sculpt their hair the way they could as children, or now as adults with kids of their own, it may not be a good look.
“Leaguewide, there’s definitely guys that have the hockey flow, but I think it’s more of a younger thing,” Schenn, 32, said. “I feel like it’s a thing when guys are 20, 21, but then some guys get it cut or some guys lose their hair. But it’s always been part of the hockey culture. I was doing it when I was young, and kids are still doing it these days. It’s just one of those things, guys having fun.”
Sundqvist never had long hair as a kid in Sweden, but that changed in 2018-19 when he grew it out during the Blues’ Stanley Cup run.
Now he’s got the longest hair on the team.
“With mine, it’s more me being able to put it up in a bun (off the ice),” Sundqvist, 29, said. “I’ve got plenty of hair, so we’ll see if I trim it up here soon. Maybe I’ll have to bring my helmet to the barber, too.”
Neighbours, 21, is part of the generation who can relate to Coleman.
“I don’t like it when it’s just helmet and no hair after that,” Neighbours said. “It needs to be visible for me.”
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The Blues recently had their team photo taken, and Neighbours made a video in which he goes into the bathroom beforehand and slicks back his long locks.
“It’s a haircut that’s been around for a long time,” he said. “It’s pretty sweet, and like Schenner said, it kind of represents the culture of hockey. It’s a cool thing to see the kids have.”
The struggle is real. #stlblues
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) October 19, 2023
So which Blues player would be most likely to take his helmet into the salon?
“Probably Jordan Binnington,” Schenn said. “He’s always got some style going on with his hair.”
“I’d have to say Jordan Kyrou,” Sundqvist said. “I feel like he’s the one that how he looks is the most important for him. Yeah, I would say Kyrou or Neighbours. I feel like those two are real pretty boys.”
Coleman lit up when told that the Blues liked his idea.
“That’s really cool!” he said.
The youngster also agreed with Sundqvist that he’s a genius.
“Yeah!” he said.
Now, if it would only catch on with other youth hockey players.
“It would be hilarious if you saw a bunch of kids walk in here with their helmets on,” Dad said.
When asked about that happening, Rita Schenn laughed.
“As a stylist, you probably don’t need that,” she said. “But they’re playing along and probably loving it in the salon because it brightens their day. They’re having a good laugh because who does that — brings in a helmet?”
