hair

Cast your mind back to August 2022. Tottenham defender Cristian Romero tugged back Chelsea‘s Marc Cucurella by his hair.

The VAR, Mike Dean, opted not to intervene for an obvious red card.

It created a line in the sand. From that point on, a zero tolerance approach was adopted.

Has the hair been tugged? Then it is a red card for violent conduct.

A strict application means we have to accept that there are cases, like Keane and Martinez, where the punishment appears too severe.

It is a bit like handball in the Champions League. People do not like some of the penalties, but they know what they are getting.

If you want consistency then you cannot have common sense too.

After the Keane red card, referees’ boss Howard Webb was very clear that hair pulling was “quite an offensive thing”.

“It was the appropriate outcome,” Webb said. “It was unusual but if we see it again next week it will be the same outcome.”

It took a few months before we did see it in similar circumstances with Martinez, and Webb was proved to be correct.

There has only been one other VAR red card in the Premier League, for Southampton’s Jack Stephens on Cucurella.

There have been several other instances in the Club World Cup, Women’s Super League and Women’s Euros.

Hair pulling is one of those dark arts which is usually only spotted through video evidence.

It happens off the ball but is more identifiable than the subtle elbow to the chest or a nip to the stomach.

Even in the EFL, which does not have VAR, Ipswich’s Leif Davis was recently banned after being picked up on camera pulling the hair of Leicester’s Caleb Okoli.

Evidence is not always clear, however.

Fulham‘s Kenny Tete could have been sent off for yanking the hair of Manchester City‘s Antoine Semenyo in February. It may well have happened, but the VAR did not feel the evidence was conclusive enough for a review.

A BOYBAND singer songwriter has turned heads on the Olivier Awards green carpet with striking new facial fuzz.

The former Strictly star showcased the suave new look at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday night.

Musician Tom Fletcher looked worlds away from his old self as he joined his wife, Giovanna Fletcher, to celebrate his stage show Paddington winning multiple awards.

The 40-year-old sported a smart blue velvet blazer with a white shirt and black bow tie.

Posing alongside him, Giovanna, 41, looked equally glam in a strapless navy floor-length gown with diamond earrings and a black clutch.

The couple appeared at the 50th anniversary of the star-studded event hosted by comedian and The Traitors favourite Nick Mohammed.

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The McFly musician composed the score for the award-winning West End hit Paddington The Musical.

The show won awards for Best Set Design, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical, Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical, Best Actor in a Musical and Best New Musical.

Adapted from Michael Bond’s beloved book series and the successful film franchise, the production is currently running at London’s Savoy Theatre.

Mum-of-three Giovanna recently revealed she suffered a second devastating miscarriage in 2025 after a “surprise” pregnancy.

The podcaster and author, who has been married to McFly star Tom since 2012 – share three sons – Buzz, Buddy and Max.

To mark the 300th episode of her podcast Happy Mum Happy Baby in February, Giovanna was interviewed by her best pal, Emma Willis.

The author said she doesn’t believe parents should have to wait until the 12-week mark to tell people as it means they can’t necessarily be there if a miscarriage happens before that time. 

The former I’m A Celebrity winner revealed she had rearranged the year ahead as she prepared to welcome the baby into the family and was looking forward to having a reason to slow down.  

Back in 2017, Giovanna opened up about suffering a heartbreaking miscarriage with her first baby before going on to welcome son Buzz.

Prior to parenting and stage success, former The Voice judge Tom was one of the original members of Busted but soon got shown the door.

The budding star auditioned for the group alongside Charlie Simpson but fate formed its own version of pop history.

Musician Tom was gutted to learn the record label had changed their mind and only wanted a trio.

In 2003, Tom joined musical forces with Danny Jones and McFly was born – named after Back to the Future‘s Marty McFly.

He has written 10 UK number-one singles and 21 top-ten singles and is credited as having written songs for One Direction, Busted, The Vamps and 5 Seconds of Summer.

The It’s All About You singers became the youngest band to have an album reach the top of the charts.

JESS Impiazzi has revealed her devastating battle with lupus amid her pregnancy.

The Ex on the Beach star has opened up about the reality of having the condition as she loses her hair and suffers with skin rashes all over her body.

Lupus is an autoimmune disease that causes the body to attack its own healthy tissue.

It can lead to inflammation and even organ damage.

Opening up about her ordeal, Jess said: “These rashes were quickly appearing all over my body.

“If my joints swelling and having arthritis wasn’t bad enough, alongside other invisible symptoms, the visible ones were chipping away at my confidence.

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“Then on top of all that my hair started to fall out. I’d say I lost nearly 50-60% of my hair.

“The daily stress and anxiety of everything kept my lupus active and I’ve honestly never felt so lost and I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

She added: “I was taking steroids to keep my immune system from attacking me and trying different meds to find the ones that worked for me, I’d have the odd day where I felt OK, and pushed myself to try and keep up with commitments.

“But the truth was I was in pain, I was scared and didn’t know how to carry on like this.

“I had to find a new way of living and researched everything I could on lupus, I find some really interesting people online who had got their lupus in remission so I decided to try things out.

“One of those things was getting my nervous system regulated after many years of it not being.”

The star, 36, is expecting her first child with partner Sam Bird, 39, later this year, after a fertility journey.

Jess is due to give birth to her little one in May, after revealing her baby news at the beginning of the year.

The star has been dating her partner Sam since summer of 2024 after splitting from her footballer ex boyfriend, Jermaine Pennant.

Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor said her players “do not deserve that level of refereeing” after Arsenal’s Katie McCabe avoided a red card for pulling Alyssa Thompson’s hair during their Champions League quarter-final exit.

The Blues were chasing a late leveller after scoring a stoppage-time goal to make it 3-2 on aggregate when McCabe reached out and tugged Thompson’s hair.

The American winger was breaking forward, but McCabe escaped a yellow card and the video assistant referee (VAR) did not advise referee Frida Mia Klarlund to review the incident.

Bompastor was shown a yellow card for angrily protesting against the decision and then sent off for her continued outburst – although she refused to leave the touchline as Arsenal held on to reach the semi-finals.

The Frenchwoman arrived prepared with her mobile phone so she could show a replay of the incident as she gave a furious interview to BBC Two.

“For me, it is clearly a red card for the Arsenal player. She’s pulling Alyssa Thompson’s hair,” Bompastor said.

“If the VAR is not able to check that situation, I don’t know why we have the VAR.

“I’m the one getting a red card when I think the Arsenal player should be the one getting a red card.”

Corona High baseball coaches have been joking about seeking an NIL deal for sophomore pitcher Chris Woodson regarding his hair that moves in many directions while blowing in the wind as he tries to keep his hat on.

Think former NFL star Troy Polamalu, who has been featured in Head & Shoulders shampoo commercials showing off his hair.

When Woodson and Corona Santiago’s Striker Pence were facing each other on Wednesday, it was the battle for hair supremacy. Pence still has blond hair sticking out from the back of his hat after he recently got his hair cut.

“Me and his dad are both bald and both had hair when we were young,” Corona coach Andy Wise said of Woodson. “We’re both not letting him cut it. It’s flowing. He has a 4.0 GPA and is an awesome kid that everyone loves.”

During his days coaching at Granada Hills, starting in the 1970s, Darryl Stroh used to require players to cut their hair to a certain length. Think Army.

As long as Woodson isn’t distracted, Wise is fine with it.

“Be yourself kid,” he tells him.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.