Gymnastics: Smith’s ‘man bun’ gets attention on pommel horse

By Pritha Sarkar

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – It was a hair-raising day for Louis Smith at the Rio Olympics on Saturday.

But rather than his fluid movements over the pommel horse providing the excitement during men’s qualifying, it was the hair tied up on top of his head.

“People are calling it a man bun. I don’t call it anything, I just tie it up,” grinned the British showman whose toned back is covered with tattoos of two angels and a message for his late grandmother.

“I was growing it and I hadn’t put any hair spray in it for training so it was flopping around everywhere. I went to one of the girls in training and asked for a hairband and I just tied it up.

“I caught myself in a mirror and thought, ‘It looks all right,’ so I’ve just been doing this every day as it’s so convenient.”

The man who waltzed to victory in Britain’s version of Dancing with the Stars after claiming a silver medal at the 2012 London Games on his signature apparatus was happy with his new look as it saves time with his daily beauty regime.

“You get out of the shower, tie it up and it’s done. Before I had to condition it, had to straighten it, had to hair spray it back,” he added.

“I haven’t seen anybody else with this hairstyle before and it’s nice to be different.”

For the record, he was heading for another pommel horse showdown with world champion Max Whitlock after the British duo topped the provisional standings in the apparatus.

(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar; Editing by Bill Rigby)