Every FIFA World Cup, on a stage that over one billion watch, new heroes emerge. This year, all eyes have been on Cabo Verde (commonly anglicized as Cape Verde). The team, hailing from the archipelago off the coast of West Africa, has grown to represent the ultimate underdog. It’s not just the Blue Sharks’ first time in the World Cup, but they made history as the smallest country by population and land size to advance to the tournament’s knockout stage. Eyes aren’t just on their performance—but on their hair, too.
Watch any Cabo Verde match, and you’ll find players with their coils defined to helical perfection or their curls flat twisted into intricate geometric patterns. A small roster of team braiders is behind these looks, including Lorreta Rocha, whose vlogs about traveling with the team have gone viral on both TikTok and Instagram. She’s been behind Blue Shark hairstyles from Garry Mendes Rodrigues to Sidny Lopes Cabral, Dailon Livramento, and Kevin Pina, who scored Cabo Verde’s first-ever goal in the World Cup while playing Uruguay. Each of them brings their own flare to the matches, but they do share some preferred trends.
“The style that’s in right now is flat twists. For most of the players, that’s what they want. For a lot of other players whose hair is not long enough for braids, they’ve asked me to work with their coils to make sure they’re hydrated and defined,” Rocha tells Allure. Rodrigues, she says, “is the kind of player who needs his hair done every week since the games follow that schedule. Because of his texture, there are particular styles he likes doing to make sure they’ll last. Where they’re playing, it’s very humid, and there’s a lot of sweating.” For Gilson Benchimol Tavares, it was helpful to restyle his locs in order to keep them secure and out of his face during the game.
“While people may look at it as something that is trivial, to have a braider or to have your hair done before every game… it has a big impact on how the players feel, especially knowing that they’re on the biggest stage that you can be on as an athlete,” Rocha says. It can be important for players to express themselves while in uniform and that these styles also carry cultural significance. “As an athlete myself, I know the [power of] being able to step on the field or a court and feel like, ‘I look like I’m the shit, so I’m going to play like I’m the shit.’” (There are whole studies showing this is real, by the way.)