Serbian Barber Carves Lionel Messi Headshot For Fans At N64,000 Per Head

For fans looking for a new haircut to celebrate the World Cup in style, a barber is clipping ‘portraits’ of stars Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo onto the back of heads in football-crazy Serbians at the rate of 150 Euros which is about N64,000 in Nigerian currency.

With the World Cup fever reaching fever pitch, Mario Hvala has decided to give his creativity free rein as he shaves and snips away on a headshot “hair tattoo” in his Novi Sad salon ahead of Thursday’s World Cup kick-off.

Speaking with AFP on his signature haircut, he said it all began nine years ago with a suggestion to a customer, “to do something different”.

That ended with a tarantula sculpted with a cut-throat razor into the hair on the back of the man’s head, and it’s since turned into something of a local fashion in Serbia’s second largest city Novi Sad.

“The portraits are the most complex when doing the ‘hair tattoos’,” Hvala said.

“It takes five to seven hours.”

With Serbia qualified for the World Cup in Russia, Hvala hit on the idea of “drawing” the faces of the world’s top two football players for fans.

“When I made Ronaldo’s portrait I got many positive comments and people were amazed,” the 35-year-old said.

However, he admits that “hair tatoo” clients often attract curious glances from passers-by or requests for photos.

But, isn’t that the whole point?

It doesn’t come cheap however: while a normal trim at the salon costs eight euros, the full portrait is priced 150 euros!