PHOENIX — Patrick Mahomes is still just 27, and whether he wins his second Super Bowl championship or not, no one should dispute that he is the heir apparent to the Tom Brady throne.
The man who believes he holds the key to Mahomes finding a way to beat the Eagles would prefer Hair Apparent.
He is Mahomes’ barber, and he will be arriving Friday at the team hotel to give haircuts to Mahomes and 21 of his Chiefs teammates.
When DeJuan Bonds was forced to miss Super Bowl LV, Mahomes lost to Brady and the Bucs.
“When we were in the last one, since we were in COVID, they had set up a barber setup for me at the Arrowhead facility, but I caught COVID, so they couldn’t get haircuts,” Bonds told The Post.
“So Pat went to the Super Bowl busted — no haircut. That’s why we lost. ’Cause he didn’t have a haircut.”
Bonds put down his scissors when he sat in the Hard Rock Stadium stands for Super Bowl LIV, when Mahomes beat the 49ers.
“It was just cool to know and just see my haircut on TV, in the newspaper, that kinda thing,” Bonds said.
Bonds has given Mahomes haircuts on a weekly basis following Mahomes rookie season at Bonds’ Purple Label Barbershop in Overland Park, Kan.
“I think that started when he started starting,” Bonds said.
Mahomes’ last haircut came the day before the Chiefs’ AFC Championship game win over Joe Burrow and the Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium.
“He gets the modified Mahomes Mohawk,” Bonds said.
Mahomes is looking forward to his next cut.
“DeJuan will keep me fresh,” Mahomes said Monday night. “He always gives me the right cut. He’ll be in town this week and he’ll make sure that I’m clean walking into the game.”
Bonds from 2009-19 was the team barber and gave haircuts weekly on Thursdays in a barber room at the Chiefs facility. Former Chiefs fullback Tony Richardson helped get him in the front door.
“He was my voice back in ’99,” Bonds said. “He and I became friends, and he kinda introduced me to the front office people.”
For the last 14 years, Chiefs players have trekked to Bonds’ barbershop. Bonds first cut Mahomes’ hair at his rookie-season OTAs.
“When a player moves to a new city, there’s a few things that they’re concerned about,” Bonds said. “And one of the things that you’re concerned about is your haircut. That was one of the topics that was discussed in the locker room — like who’s the barber? He was led to me to the barbershop through Travis Kelce.”
Bonds, 48, grew up a Chiefs fan, although when Mahomes was drafted with the 10th pick in 2017, he didn’t know who he was because he doesn’t follow college football.
“The reason that I don’t, “ Bonds said, “is because my Saturday mornings for the last 25 years has been spent head down, cutting all day on a Saturday. I can only look up when there’s a great play happening because of the cheering, either on the TV or in the barbershop.”
He didn’t have a favorable impression of Mahomes’ hair the first time he got to cut it.
“One thing that I do remember is like whoever had been cutting his hair, I didn’t like it, I didn’t think that it was fitting to him, so I had to wait patiently,” Bonds said. “Like I couldn’t really do a whole lot because I had a vision of what I wanted it to look like, but it wasn’t there the first time I met him, so I had already told him, I said, ‘Hey man, I’m only gonna do it a little bit because I need to let your hair grow in certain areas so we can get the desired look that I think looks best for you, that fits your head shape and everything.’”
Bonds would see Mahomes every two weeks during the 2017 season.
“It took almost six weeks to get it right,” Bonds said.
His first impression of Mahomes in the chair?
“He conversated with me and the other barbers and other customers that were in the barbershop,” Bonds said. “He was very open, wasn’t reserved or anything like that. But didn’t anyone really know who he was either, though. They were like, ‘Oh, OK, he’s a backup quarterback.’”
It’s different now. “We select times for cuts for privacy,” Bonds said.
Now Mahomes is the Hair Apparent.
“He scrolls social media,” Bonds said of Mahomes while he’s in the chair, “and then a lot of times we have [the television] on ‘SportsCenter,’ so we chime in on wherever events are going on in ‘SportsCenter’ topics. A lot of times it’s topics about him, so it’s funny to watch him look up and see what they’re saying about him.”
Chances are, they are saying glowing things, about his improvisational magic, about his golden arm, about his will to win, come hell or high ankle sprain.
“You’ve gotta be ready,” Bonds said. “Everybody. Even me sitting at home watching as a fan, I gotta be ready ’cause I don’t know what to expect. I can’t even imagine what it’d be like for the guys that are out there on the field that he’s throwing to. You gotta be ready. You don’t know when that sidearm is coming, you don’t know when that toss is coming, that bailout toss, whatever you want to call it. You gotta be ready, you gotta be head on swivel when you’re watching him ’cause he’s gonna make something exciting happen.”
Bonds began cutting the hair of his two brothers and cousins at 14 and graduated from Ea La Mars Cosmetology and Barber College in 1995. He first worked at Deb’s Images and opened Napps Barbershop in 1997 and then Purple Label in 2010.
“When I was young, we didn’t go to games, because it just wasn’t affordable, and they weren’t good,” Bonds said. “And then, when I became the team barber, I was at every home game for almost a 10-year span.”
He’ll be at his second Super Bowl to give Patrick Mahomes that game-changing Super Bowl haircut. Asked if it will be on Friday or Saturday, Bonds said: “Not sure … he wants to be as fresh as possible.”
Have Scissors Will Travel.
Razoring Arizona.
“It don’t feel real,” Bonds said. “I mean, I know we got a great guy, but it don’t feel real, man. Three times in four years? It’s crazy!”
The Eagles should brace for Hair Mahomes.
