MAHOMES

look like when he took off his trademark headband and spoke to the world after the game.

It matters because that hairdo — with a precision fade and exploding crown of curls — has become as much a calling card for Bonds as it is for Mahomes.

The longtime Kansas City-area barber is known as the go-to guy among some of the biggest names in local professional sports. He’s the man who took the meh-mohawk that Mahomes wore at Texas Tech and whipped it into shape for the NFL spotlight his rookie year. He has groomed it ever since. The look is iconic, among two-legged and four-legged fans alike.

Across the country, little boys and middle-aged men, black and white, curly haired dudes and ones with stick-straight hair, want that look, some going to unusual lengths to get it. Grade-schoolers are letting their moms curl their hair — one let his mom give him a chemical perm — to get that Mahomes ‘do.

That hair has starred in TV commercials — with Jake from State Farm and for Head & Shoulders with retired Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, also known for his luscious locks. There are videos on Youtube showing how to do the style.

In the Kansas City metro, ground zero for the trend, even dogs sport the cut. In the weeks before the Super Bowl, Jenna Ruby, who owns Glamour Grooming in Shawnee, started giving dogs Mahomes haircuts — shaved on the sides, poofy on the top, with a bandanna, of course.

She’s done that to about 20 dogs, mostly poodles and goldendoodles with curly coats, and expected more requests as the team heads into this season’s playoffs. “I think this is quite the little trend that’s happened,” said Ruby, who has been grooming dogs for 10 years and would love to get her paws on the quarterback’s own dogs.

But there’s more going on here than hair. Overland Park barber

Eric “Cutta” Ross felt it when a man walked into his appointment-only shop one day and asked if someone could cut his hair. He just found out he had cancer and wanted his head shaved before chemotherapy.

“I want to do something crazy,” the man said, and he specifically wanted something with a

Mahomes theme.

Ross was ready. He’s been giving customers of all ages the Mahomes look lately. So he buzzed the man’s hair into a mohawk and sculpted Mahomes’ face and jersey number,

15, on the side of his head. “He was an older Caucasian gentleman and you would not expect him to get that,” Ross said. “It touched my heart.”

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It wasn’t that long ago that Kansas City sports fans went gaga over another stylized mohawk, the one worn by former Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer. Some people even call Mahomes’ hair a “Hos.”

Bonds, who not so surprisingly cut Hosmer’s hair, too, nicknamed Mahomes’ hair “The Show-me” haircut. He doesn’t think the name has caught on yet.

He’s right.

“I’ve touched every famous Kansas City Chief and Royal in the last 25 years,” said Bonds, who several years ago had a formalized relationship with the Chiefs, cutting the hair of players and coaches in a room set up like a barbershop at Arrowhead Stadium.

“I can go on and on and name (them), and I might forget some, so I don’t want to do that and upset someone ... so you name it. If he was a big-time athlete in Kansas City, I got the honors.”

Now players come to his shop — Purple Label Luxury Barber Shop by Napps — tucked between a UPS store and Barley’s Kitchen and Tap at 119th Street and Quivira Road. It’s not unusual for a

Chiefs player to be the last one out the door on a Friday night before a home game.

The shop is a dream man cave, soundtrack provided by Hip Hop

BBQ on Pandora, custom championship murals painted on the back walls — one for the Royals, one for the Chiefs.

Framed sports jerseys line the walls, a hall of fame of Bonds’ most famous MLB and NFL clients. Lorenzo Cain. Alex Gordon. Danny Duffy. Salvador Perez. Mecole Hardman. Demcarcus Robinson. Travis Kelce.

And, of course, a No. 15 jersey, signed: “To Dejuan, Thanks for keeping me the cleanest QB in the game!”

Bonds keeps his razors and trimmers splayed out at his station like the tools of a surgeon. His hand is just as steady when he wields them. He prefers his “old-school” tools, admitting that he hasn’t picked up the fancier, cordless cutters his younger barbers use.

Bonds, who has three children, went away to college after high school, but it wasn’t for him, says his older brother, Derrick Bonds. The two used to cut each other’s hair when they were younger and Derrick is still his brother’s customer.

“I remember having that conversation,” Derrick said. “He said, ‘I’m coming back, what am I doing to do? And I’m like, ‘Man, go to barber school.’ And that’s where it started. He followed his passion and got his barber license.”

Bonds quickly built up a clientele working out of his aunt’s beauty shop in Olathe. The name of his first shop was Napps, which remains part of his business logo. “You have to have an eye for it. He’s a perfectionist. Anal is what I ... he’s very, very anal on his haircuts,” said Derrick.

Bonds gets to work at 6 a.m. and often doesn’t leave until after 8 p.m.

He’s sometimes his own worst enemy, because he is known to squeeze walk-ins into his packed schedule.

“He’s blessed to have the talent that he has. He thanks God every day for the talent,” Derrick said. “It’s a blessing and a curse, because he’s busy all the time. He’s wanted, you know. But, he loves it, though. He wouldn’t have it any other way.”

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Bonds seems tired of people asking why he wasn’t in that State Farm commercial showing Mahomes getting his hair cut. The quarterback’s younger brother, Jackson, is in it, too.

The barber cutting Mahomes’ hair in the spot was an actor, Bonds will have you know. And, insult to injury, “he wasn’t holding the clippers right,” said Bonds, who added that if he had been asked to be in that commercial, Mahomes would never pay for another haircut again.

(Don’t ask him how much Mahomes pays for his weekly cuts. Bonds won’t tell.)

Bonds was on set, however, and styled Mahomes’ hair when he and Polamalu shot a Head & Shoulders commercial at the Genesis Health KC Racquet Club in Merriam.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, also a client of Bonds’, brought Mahomes and his barber together.

“When players come to town, besides where they want to live, they also want to know where they’re going to get their hair cut,” Bonds said. “That’s one of the things they ask, like, ‘OK, let me take a survey and look around and see whose head looks good and who’s doing it.’

So he asked Travis Kelce, and (Kelce said) ‘I go see Dejuan at Purple Label.’”

Bonds refuses to pass judgment on whoever used to cut Mahomes’ hair in Texas. Let’s just say, uh, the fade wasn’t great.

The first time Mahomes sat in Bonds’ chair, he gave Bonds carte blanche. “He said, ‘I trust you,’ “Bonds recalled, “and that’s where the relationship began.

“It wasn’t in bad shape, but I had to work on it to try to get it to look like the vision that I saw. It’s a canvas, and when I see a head, I already know what I want it to look like, so I actually had to play with it for a good month before I got it to look the way I wanted it to.”

Bonds can usually cut someone’s hair in 20 minutes. Mahomes sits in the chair for at least 40, 45 minutes, sometimes longer, depending on the conversation. Bonds tries to avoid football talk.

It’s a tricky head of hair to cut — fine, with cowlicks. It invites Sampson comparisons, given how Mahomes prefers to wear his curls longer during the season. “I haven’t cut much off the top lately,” Bonds said. “He likes it long. He just wants to keep it out of his eyes.”

Bonds has to keep in mind that Mahomes is a scrunch-and-go guy. “He doesn’t really comb it, he just messes with it,” he said.

He figured out how to cut Mahomes’ hair so that “when he takes his helmet off, or he takes his headphones off, or whatever he does,” it looks good.

“My fear isn’t when he takes his helmet off, because he always has a wrap on. My fear is when

he does the interviews — does he comb his hair when he takes his wrap off,” Bonds said.

And Bonds hasn’t diagrammed that postgame play for his young client — yet. “I always just have my fingers crossed,” he said.

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On Christmas Eve, former University of Kansas basketball player Travis Releford brought his 9-year-old son, T.J., into Bonds’ shop to get the boy’s Mahomes mohawk freshened for the holidays.

Bonds began cutting Releford’s hair when he played basketball for Bishop Miege and continued as his barber after Releford joined the Jayhawks. Releford brought some of his KU teammates to Bonds, too.

“It’s popular now because (Mahomes) is the face of our football team,” said Releford, who lives in Kansas City. “You see it on a lot of people, a lot of younger kids for sure, especially kids my son’s age.

“I feel like he’s come here and lifted the city up, as far as spirit, as far as how we come together when it comes to football. We went so long without winning. He gives us something to cheer for, especially during a time like this.”

The mane attraction here, clearly, is not the hair, but the man.

“I think the magic just comes from him as a person,” said Timeka Proctor, a Northland mom whose 9-year-old son, Jaxson, went viral at Halloween two years ago with a Mahomes haircut and jersey. Mahomes retweeted Jaxson’s uncle’s tweet about the costume and gave Jaxson an

autographed football that his mom won’t let him play with for safekeeping’s sake.

Matt Phillips recently got a Mahomes cut on a dare from his wife and their 9-year-old son, Hampton — a young “Mahomie.”

“They figured a grayheaded Mahomes cut would be hysterical,” said Phillips, a 44-year-old construction supervisor for a grocery store chain who lives in Boiling Springs, South Carolina.

But Phillips didn’t mind because he understands why Mahomes means so much to his son.

“To us and my son, Patrick seems like someone who is appreciative of all the success he has had and seems to have a genuine soul,” Phillips said.

“He comes across as approachable and likes to have fun. I think it’s great for young people to look up to someone who is genuine and seems to love what he does and the city he does it in. Santa brought my son a Mahomes T-shirt, sweatshirt and an official KC Chiefs football.”

On the shelf above where Bonds cuts Mahomes’ hair sits a replica of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, similar to the ones that Super

Bowl winners receive.

It’s a visual reminder that the head of one of Kansas City’s most beloved celebrities lies in Bonds’ capable hands.

The barber’s brother says all those celebrity clients haven’t gone to Bonds’ head.

Well, maybe this one has. The clippers that Bonds used on Mahomes at the Super Bowl?

They’re packed away in a box, bits of that MVP hair still in them.