Fresh week, fresh fade: Joe Burrow’s new cut inspired by loss to Browns

CINCINNATI — After another tough loss against a familiar opponent, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow knew a change was necessary.

So he picked up the phone and called his trusted barber.

On Sunday, Burrow had one of his worst NFL showings in a 24-3 drubbing against the Cleveland Browns, a team he and the Bengals have struggled against. Three days later, he showed up to practice and the long hair was gone.

How did Burrow know it was time to get a fresh look?

“When you have a game like that on Sunday,” Burrow said with a smile Wednesday during his weekly news conference.

Darnell Bonner, a longtime Cincinnati-area resident, got the message after Sunday’s game asking about his availability. Bonner, 31, who started out by cutting his own hair in seventh grade and has been a barber professionally for the past five years, has become the unofficial stylist for the Bengals.

Burrow asked for his old haircut after months with the long locks. Bonner gave Burrow his signature short-hair look: a low fade with a size 2 clipper guard at the top. When it comes to scheduling, Bonner said Burrow is flexible and relaxed. But the same intensity he carries on the field carries over to the barber’s chair.

“The same level of focus you see him have on the field is the same thing that you get in real life,” Bonner told ESPN. “He is a very focused guy.”

Bonner’s first Bengals client was former wide receiver Cody Core, a sixth-round pick in the 2016 draft. Bonner worked briefly at a local spa when one of his co-workers recommended him to Core.

After Core posted his haircut to Instagram — something Bonner is thankful for to this day — Bonner’s next clients were Auden Tate and Jacques Patrick, two former Bengals who were also roommates. Once word spread to wide receiver Tyler Boyd, the longest-tenured player on the roster and one of its biggest personalities, business picked up.

Bonner’s shop, Nell’s Barbershop in nearby Florence, Kentucky, now has clients who play for the town’s other major professional teams, the Cincinnati Reds and MLS club FC Cincinnati. Then there are others who want the same look as Cincinnati’s star quarterback or just to sit in the same chair. Bonner said one family drove more than three hours just to get their haircut at the same place as many of the Bengals.

However, there is a misconception when it comes to how the haircut is going to look. There’s one thing that makes Burrow’s cut unique — a front cowlick.

“There’s always this expectation to get the little curlicue that he has in front,” Bonner said with a laugh. “I can’t change anything genetically.”

It’s not a shock that Burrow might opt for a change to break up any bad vibes.

Longtime teammate Ja’Marr Chase, who played with Burrow at LSU and has been one of his top receivers in Cincinnati, is among the many who got a kick out of the quarterback’s new fade ahead of Sunday’s game against Baltimore.

“It throws me off a little bit when I see him with a cut sometimes,” Chase said. “He don’t really cut his hair a lot.”