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Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird are easily one of the cutest couples in the history of sports, but just in case you have any doubts, their recent weekend project should be plenty of proof. Bird, a star player on the WNBA's Seattle Storm, gave a haircut to Rapinoe, captain of both Seattle's OL Reign soccer club and the U.S. Women's National Team, in front of a live Instagram audience with the long-distance help of one of Rapinoe's go-to stylists, Riawna Capri of Nine Zero One salon.
Usually short and piecey, Rapinoe's hair has almost reached bob status. Her dark brown roots have grown in, and there’s barely any pink or purple left in the faded length. But while going to the salon is about of the question right now, Bird and Capri were ready to help her spruce things up a bit.
“I've never actually talked my way through a haircut, especially on a legendary, iconic haircut," Capri says during the Instagram Live, thrilled that Bird and Rapinoe have fashioned a makeshift Nine Zero One cape. "We're about to make a new legendary, iconic haircut."
With Capri’s guidance, Bird sections the top of Rapinoe’s hair away from the rest with a comb and a hair elastic. Rapinoe admits she's nervous, to which Bird replies with a not-too-reassuring, "It’s just hair." She then clips a little more hair up to avoid cutting too short in higher-up areas. Rapinoe takes a sip from a humongous wine glass before Bird starts using a Wahl clipper at the number-four setting. Using a kitchen mallet on her end of the call, Capri guides Bird through the scooping motion of using the clipper, starting at the nape of Rapinoe's neck.
"You can ask your client to hold her ear down as well," Capri tells Bird as she’s work around the sides.
"Client, can you hold your ear down?" Bird says to Rapinoe.
Once Bird gets the baby hairs right by gliding the clippers sideways, she moves on to the number-three setting to create a bit of a fade from the bottom up to the occipital bone and perfects it with a number-two. She even goes in with scissors at Rapinoe's temples to get awkwardly long pieces.
Before Bird can move onto the middle layer, Rapinoe takes the clippers into her own hands to clean up as she sees fit. But then it's time to move onto what Capri calls the "mushroomy bowl area." For this, Bird uses what's known in salons as a carving comb, razoring away the ends and creating texture with special staggered teeth. Although Capri wants Bird to swipe and glide the comb, she can't help but awkwardly hack at Rapinoe's hair.
They use the carving comb on top as well to help get rid of extra bulk — and Bird really gets into it with some full-body movements. But to lose some length, Bird uses actual scissors, impressively adopting a very professional-looking technique.
With Capri approving of the outcome, Bird sprays Rapinoe's hair with one of Capri's In Common products, Magic Myst. "This shit keeps my hair alive. I don't even use anything in it," Rapinoe said of the spray earlier in the video. "Keeps it healthy, keeps it right, keeps it texturized, keeps it moisturized."
Next up: teaching Bird how to bleach Rapinoe's hair so she can go back to her signature purply-pink.
Watch the whole video here:
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More celebrities doing hair themselves:
- Jonathan Van Ness Revealed His Secret for Perfect Air-Dried Waves
- Kelly Ripa Cut Her Own Hair With Kitchen Scissors
- Gwen Stefani Gave Blake Shelton a Haircut on National Television
Now check out 100 years of short hair:
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