Skip to Content
Features

A Spotter’s Guide to Hair Management

Gustavo Kuerten at the Roland Garros 2001 men’s finals. (Photo by Franck Seguin/Corbis Sport via Getty Images)

This week, Diana Shnaider, the 19-year-old from Russia who has her head scarves sewn to size, descends upon Indian Wells like a Valkyrie, flaxen tresses locked down for battle. Her remarkable bandana-cum-babuskha got us to look up, briefly, from the desert Plexipave courts and consider the many sartorial choices players have made where headbands are concerned. Forthwith, we surmise some whys and several wherefores of tennis headband choices. We encourage you to use this guide as a metaphorical bingo card this week as the pros trot out their headgear.

To keep your flapper bangs from, well, flapping: It didn’t hurt that Suzanne Lenglen’s Ur-headband looked just like the fashion headwear of the day, adding a soupçon of style to athletic necessity and rocketing women’s tennis into popular culture, where it belongs.

To keep a truly prodigious head of hair from getting out of hand: Gustavo Kuerten’s mop was never going to submit to a mere headband, which makes us wonder whether he was wearing it for EMPHASIS.

To keep your fair skin from burning: Teenage Russian-on-the-rise Diana Shnaider, who needs sun protection but doesn’t like brims, took the lowly bandana and made it her own. Saving her scalp from certain crispiness while rocking a novel hair accessory? Goddess-level.

To flirt with hairloss: Andre Agassi has played a lot of tennis with something on his head - including a hairpiece. So it was no surprise when he mounted a comeback in a bandana and slayed in more ways than one.

To look like you’re wearing a tiara, because you should be: Seems like her ponytail was doing the yeoman’s job of hair management, but the braided white terry cloth band that sat across Monica Seles’s forehead like a crown was just the amount of extra we were all looking for in the '80s and '90s.

seles

To pull back every strand because even a single flyaway might affect your unorthodox but infectious moves: We cannot confirm the brand of old-school circular hair comb that Alexandr Dolgopolov sported, but it looks an awful lot like a Scunci Stretch Hair Comb and it was a masterful use of a drugstore hair accessory.

To soak up sweat before it hits your eyes: Frances Tiafoe works hard. So does his headband. We used to wonder how absorbent, really, those terry cloth bands could possibly be. We are now believers in their power and might start using them for kitchen messes.

To match your outfit and keep your shiny locks out of your face: Let’s face it: Roger Federer’s hair is so obedient, it probably would have stayed out of his eyes just as a matter of principle. But the headband was laying down a message and we were picking it up.

To make a man-bun obsolete: with that flow, Stefanos Tsitsipas could head in the direction of a man-bun; in fact, he’s already there. But he’s keeping his options open with a headband and we support his choice.

To hide a five-head: An extra-wide headband is an awfully useful tool, when the time comes. Names withheld for respect and privacy but c’mon. WE KNOW.

TOPSHOT-TENNIS-AUS-OPEN


Above: Guga Kuerten, Monica Seles and Diana Shnaider in epic headwear through the years.
(Getty Images)

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Racquet

Classy, Grassy Footwork at Queens

Trickier, faster, and lower: the softest surface in tennis is also the hardest to master. Grass demands an astonishing interplay of explosive power and grace: a balance all four athletes masterfully display; a spectacle for the eyes. Call it a flight, a dance, or “just” a rally, these images celebrate the spectacle of footwork on tennis’s classiest courts: West Kensington’s Queen’s.

June 20, 2025

What Your Tennis Bag Says About You

Your bag is closer to a clown car than tennis gear. A vehicle for getting your trickery from A to B, before you park her on the sidelines so the real work can happen. The bag you bring to court exists on a scale of form and function for which you are the architect.

June 13, 2025

Best of Both Worlds: Sydney Gawlik

"As the observer, it’s respecting those unseen acts of perseverance. I don’t know what it’s like to be in their shoes. But my effort to honor it is to document these moments of power and grace, preserving them in time."

June 9, 2025

Spectacular Outcomes in Paris

Rennae and Caitlin swap positions on clay—the latter is done with it and Rennae wants to savor these last moments of the season on terre battue. And what a series of moments it was—two epic and drama-filled finals of this year's Roland Garros—both possessing of incredible narratives on (and off) court. We both give a full chapeau to Coco Gauff's unreal self belief and self possession in weathering the storm of Aryna Sabalenka, who played one of the most brilliant matches of the tournament to take out Iga Swiatek in the semis. On the men's side, an instant classic.

June 9, 2025

What to Wear to Roland-Garros: A Dispatch from the Clay Runway 

Roland-Garros isn’t just a tennis tournament—it’s a style summit masquerading as sport.

June 4, 2025

Racquet’s 2025 Summer Must-Have List

Whether you’re attending the US Open or killing it on your local court, our annual Summer Must-Have list goes beyond the basics. We’ve rounded up the best in fashion, wellness, and accessories to bring your warm-weather play to the next level.

May 30, 2025
See all posts