Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs are this year’s champions of the American Football Conference and on the verge of potentially repeating as champions of the NFL in the upcoming Super Bowl LVIII, but it seems the man can’t win — off the field, anyway.
Throughout the season — and especially during the playoffs — conservatives and/or football fans who just don’t want to be inundated with cutaway shots to Kelce’s current future ex-girlfriend, pop star Taylor Swift, have tired of the tight end.
Some have even accused the establishment media and the NFL establishment of “conspiracy theories” involving the promotion of the Kelce/Swift romance to boost Joe Biden’s approval ratings, since Swift is a prominent liberal who has endorsed Democrats in the past. (That’d be a hell of a conspiracy, considering the most prominent Democrat she endorsed lost, and big time, but I digress.)
Now, however, Kelce is taking heat for something that has nothing to do with his love life. Nope. It’s for his haircut — and because of second-hand “cultural appropriation.”
On Jan. 29, quite quietly, The New York Times published this hard-hitting piece: “They’ll Take the Travis Kelce — Hairdo, That Is; Not since Jennifer Aniston has a haircut become so popular. Barbers, in America and abroad, are being inundated with requests for ‘the Travis Kelce.’”
Now, in case you’ve forgotten, this is Mr. Kelce’s haircut. (He’s the one on the right.)
Travis Kelce will reportedly not be attending the Grammys with Taylor Swift due to Super Bowl schedule pic.twitter.com/xuMmPedbGG
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) January 30, 2024
“Jeffrey Dugas, who cuts hair at Obsidian Barbers in New Brunswick, Canada, has received a very specific request from clients in the past few weeks: They want the same style as Travis Kelce,” the Times’ Alyson Krueger wrote.
Was this ignorant?
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“Mr. Kelce’s hairstyle, a buzz cut fade, is easy to replicate.”
“‘It’s a fun, easy haircut that I can do in a quick 20 minutes,’” Dugas said told Kreuger.
“But the sheer number of customers asking for it astounds him,” Kruger wrote. “Mr. Dugas is hardly the only barber getting these requests. Across the world, not just the country, men are replicating Mr. Kelce’s hairstyle, claiming it attracts positive attention from friends and love interests and gives them more confidence, though some also say it is hard to maintain — it needs to be re-buzzed every two to four weeks, according to Mr. Dugas — or too airy to keep warm during winter.”
This piece of hard-hitting journalism went relatively unnoticed until later in the week — when it became a sign that Kelce, The New York Times, and/or white America was somehow culturally appropriating a black hairstyle.
According to the New York Post, former Denver Broncos tight end and Fox Sports 1 personality Shannon Sharpe, who hosts a podcast called “Nightcap” with another former NFL star, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, was among the first to make it an issue in a segment called, “Did the fade just get gentrified?”
“The New York Times began Black History Month by referring to the fade as ‘the Travis Kelce,’” Sharpe said, according to the Post. “New York Times, so that’s how you start Black History Month.”
Sharpe added that he’s been getting a fade haircut since 1986: “I’m trying to figure out what black barbershop you go in and say. ‘let me get the Travis Kelce,’” he said, according to the Post.
Then came sports journalist Jemele Hill — formerly of ESPN, currently of The Atlantic — who’s inability to resist wading into any minor issue of race, rhetorical guns a’blazin’, is roughly the same as Mr. Kelce’s girlfriend’s inability to resist writing breakup songs about her failed relationships.
“The NYT thinks that Travis Kelce invented the fade,” she wrote on social media Friday, along with a facepalm emoji.
“When you have zero cultural competency on your staff, this is how you end up with stories like this.”
The NYT thinks that Travis Kelce invented the fade 🤦🏾♀️ When you have zero cultural competency on your staff, this is how you end up with stories like this, and explaining swag surfin,’ which is at least 15 or years old. pic.twitter.com/EgqZ1vJmBN
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) February 2, 2024
A podcaster who calls himself Ameen, meanwhile, took to the social media platform X on Saturday to tell his 18.6k followers that that “[t]his is how cultural appropriation works.
“Same thing happened when white women got braids & cornrows & these folks called it ‘new” & “bold’ when black women did it for centuries!” he wrote. “Travis Kelce’s haircut is a simple ‘fade’ that black men have worn FOREVER.”
This is how cultural appropriation works.
Same thing happened when white women got braids & cornrows & these folks called it “new” & “bold” when black women did it for centuries!
Travis Kelce’s haircut is a simple “fade” that black men have worn FOREVER. pic.twitter.com/hoEZJbwy3m
— Ameen (@Ameen_HGA) February 3, 2024
Yes, and as that community note points out, it’s a haircut that’s been around at least since World War II, and was worn by American men of all races.
The link in the community note is to the black-centric publication Ebony and a 2016 article that traced the history of the hairdo:
“The hairstyle originated in the U.S. military around the ’40s and ’50s. Since the military is known for having strict grooming standards, it’s no surprise to learn that the fade haircut was and still is popular among military men, as the harsh lines and angles signaled you meant business.”
All fades matter, in other words.
Furthermore, while one gets a bit queasy having to defend the Times’ ridiculous story on Travis Kelce’s hair, at no point does Alyson Krueger claim he invented it. While she doesn’t get into the history of it like the Ebony piece does, she mentions that it’s “easy to replicate,” which aren’t exactly words one throws around when discussing a unique concept.
If this were a Brian Bosworth mullet, sure, different story. But Travis Kelce a) isn’t an obnoxious NFL draft bust and b) has a fairly anonymous hairdo that a lot of guys just want to duplicate. Whoo-hoo. That’s it.
And conservative commentators, like The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, pushed back against the Ameen post: “Europeans have worn braids for hundreds of years,” he wrote on X. “White guys have had buzz cuts since the electric trimmer was invented (by a white guy). Once again, claims of ‘cultural appropriation’ are only ever made by people who think world history began about 30 years ago.”
Europeans have worn braids for hundreds of years. White guys have had buzz cuts since the electric trimmer was invented (by a white guy). Once again, claims of “cultural appropriation” are only ever made by people who think world history began about 30 years ago. https://t.co/KKHauUmUep
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 5, 2024
That being said, the Times should have seen this coming. After all, who are the kind of people most likely to be its readers? The same kind who buy into these narratives of “cultural appropriation,” that’s who. It can be garbage, but it’s garbage that the demographic groups that tend to read the Gray Lady tend to lap up.
That said, the idea that the fade haircut is somehow cultural appropriation because it’s enjoying a wider popularity thanks to Travis Kelce after being embraced by hip-hop culture is still a uniquely dumb one, considering where the haircut originated.
But when it comes to uniquely dumb narratives, it’s right at home with the event.
The controversy, in fact, provides more proof of why, even though this is the 58th iteration of the Super Bowl, the contest this coming Sunday might well just be called be Stupid Bowl I.
The most famous figure associated with it won’t be anywhere near the field. The favored San Francisco 49ers have received almost zero coverage compared to the Swift-Kelce saga, and the quarterback of Chiefs — arguably the best player in the game — has been moved to the background because of the Travis and Taylor Show. I wouldn’t be halfway surprised if CBS cancels the lead-out program for a hastily arranged reality series titled “Keeping Up Swift the Kelcedashians.”
Heck, why bother to let the teams out of the locker room? Bring out some political commentators to shout over each other about conservative “conspiracy theories” regarding Swift and Kelce’s relationship. Then, let’s get Jemele Hill and Shannon Sharpe to lecture American whites about culturally appropriating the fade haircut, even though it originated in the military. After that, switch to the pilot for the “Kelcedashians” reality TV show. A full Sunday night!
And as for the game? Uh, what game?
