Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
San Antonio Spurs wing Lonnie Walker opened up about his hairstyle and the emotional significance of cutting it.
For the first two years of his NBA career, the most recognizable thing about Lonnie Walker IV may have been his unique, trademark hairstyle.
While the wing out of the University of Miami struggled to find minutes with the San Antonio Spurs as a rookie and second-year player, his signature “pineapple” hairdo let everyone in the building know when he was on the court.
However, an eye-opening Instagram post from the 21-year-old informed the public of the emotional weight behind that hairstyle and why he had decided to cut it after all these years:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBULIhVBSon/
The video mainly details the origins of his hairdo and how it came to be, starting in seventh grade with a small mohawk. But as Walker describes in the caption of his Instagram video, that hairstyle was something of a cloaking device for him:
“During the summer of my 5th grade year I was around more family,” he wrote. “Some that names will be left alone I was around more. I was sexually harassed, raped, abused, I even got accustomed to it because being at that age you don’t know what is what. I was a gullible curious kid that didn’t know what the real world was. I had a mindset that my hair was something that I can control. My hair was what I can make and create and be mine. And it gave my confidence.”
Walker also said because of the coronavirus, he wasn’t at his best and began to look at himself in the mirror behind closed doors, ultimately finding peace in the process.
“I forgave everyone even the people that don’t deserve it why? Because it’s dead weight. Time doesn’t wait on anyone so why should I waste my time on it ? Me cutting my hair was more than a cut. My hair was a mask of me hiding the insecurity’s that I felt the world wasn’t ready for. But now better then ever. Out with old. In with the new. I have shed my skin mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Life will always be hard. Gotta play with the cards your dealt with and try and make a winning hand. And if you lose. It’s never a lost. It’s a lesson.”
Lonnie Walker’s new hairdo is more clean shaven and features a cross on the side. After a season in which he’s shown flashes of being ready for a more prominent role with the Spurs’ incoming youth movement, he should get the chance to make sure he’s known for a lot more than his former hairdo.
It can’t possibly have been easy sharing this kind of devastating story to the public, but his courage in doing so — and the inner peace and strength he’s hopefully found in the process — should be applauded and appreciated. .