How can facial hair or a haircut help you?

In this post I talked about how a fringe state cricket player in Australia had made a bit of an impact in a cricket test match because of his height and his surfer-like long blonde hair.

Today I would like to continue with the cricket theme and talk about another cricketer who stood out a lot and that is the one and only, Merv Hughes. It would be fair to say that Merv Hughes wasn't one of the greats of Australian cricket. I wouldn't put him in the same category as Sir Donald Bradman or Shane Warne or Dennis Lillee but he certainly has an excellent test match record and when he played for Australia, he always gave 200% and was a real character on the field. In fact, I can imagine that not just for Australia but he appears to be the type of guy who would give 200% if was playing club cricket or international cricket or even backyard cricket.

I've always wondered if Merv Hughes didn't have a huge moustache if he would have been a crowd favourite or if we would remember him now. As you can see in this video he certainly played up to the crowd and was certainly a crowd favourite.

To answer my own question, probably not. I'm sure he still would have given 200% with moustache or without moustache but he wouldn't have been remembered for his play as much as he is now. He is still wildly popular. He takes tour groups around the world to watch the Australian team play and I'm sure that the groups have a great time.

The point of this post today is that sometimes you have to do something a little bit different to stand out. It doesn't hurt to have a fantastic outgoing personality as well.

Another current sportsman I can think of is professional dart player. Peter 'Snakebite' Wright. In this video you can see his walk on. He has dyed his hair the same colour as his shirt and he looks the real showman.

Compare this to a floor tournament he has played recently where there is no crowd and just a couple of cameras.

Both Merv Hughes and Peter Wright have created their on-field personas superbly. They bring the crowd into it and that is what professional sport is all about. It is all about entertainment.

What are you going to do to stand out? Maybe you don't want to dye your hair pink or grow a big moustache but even if you don't play professional sports you can still stand out in some way. It might be difficult at first but I think it will be totally worth it in the long run.