The Minnesota Mavericks Women’s Soccer Team Is Bonding Over Hair
Mavericks soccer player Ella Huettl has created some of the most viral hairstyles for her teammates. Here, Vogue speaks with Huettl, her teammates, and coaches to talk about the fun styles and the power that hairstyling has on their game.
Reported by Vogue.
A 6-0-1 record doesn't happen by accident, and the Minnesota State University Mavericks women's soccer team will tell you exactly what's fueling it: skill, yes — but also a very deliberate pre-game ritual involving dragon braids, bubble ponytails, color ribbons, and one extraordinarily talented teammate with a scheduling spreadsheet. Ella Huettl, 21, has turned game-day hair into a full team affair — and the internet cannot get enough of it.
What started sophomore year as a casual bonding activity has grown into a viral phenomenon with over 50,000 Instagram followers and TikTok videos regularly pulling hundreds of thousands to millions of views. Huettl works from a timed schedule — appointments spaced 25 to 30 minutes apart, starting as early as 10:30 a.m. for a 7 p.m. kickoff, with a personal record of 11 styles in a single game day. Her go-tos are Eco Style Gel and TIY Hair Ties; her inspiration comes from Pinterest, TikTok, and teammates who hand her their phones and say, "Do whatever you want." Teammate Ruthie Gyasi, whose natural curls Huettl has learned to braid through practice and direct coaching from Gyasi herself, put it simply, according to Vogue: "I can tell she has gotten a lot more confident." The feeling is mutual and the skill-share is real — Huettl credits her teammates for teaching her which products and techniques actually work for their hair textures.
More Than a Vibe — It's a Statement
Women athletes have long been policed on their appearance in ways their male counterparts simply aren't. Rachael Gibson, the writer known as The Hair Historian, traces it directly: as women fought for the right to compete professionally, blending in — slick ponytail, neat braid, short cut — was one less battle to fight. The expectation was assimilation to a "neutral male default," Gibson explains. The shift came slowly, through athletes like Serena and Venus Williams wearing beaded braids at Grand Slams, Florence Griffith Joyner running with voluminous hair flying, and Megan Rapinoe making her cropped pink hair as iconic as her game. Today at the collegiate level, the rules have loosened considerably. Assistant coach Lizzy Vetter notes that while some referees still flag bobby pins for safety reasons, players largely wear their hair however they choose — a few even wear it down.
For the Mavericks, the styling sessions are functioning as something deeper than aesthetics. Teammate Meghan Sullivan calls it superstition — she's convinced she plays worse when Huettl doesn't do her hair. Senior Anna Stromberg shows up with a vague reference or no reference at all and trusts the process. Even Coach Vetter has sat in the chair. "As one of the only female coaches on staff, I too relate to wanting to feel my best on gamedays," she says. Huettl's most meaningful work, though, are the looks she creates around cause-driven games — green glitter and elastics for Mental Health Awareness, pink details for Breast Cancer Awareness. Hair as intention, not just decoration.
Gibson frames the act of braiding as historically intimate — you are letting someone close, trusting them with something that carries weight. For the Mavericks, that intimacy is the whole point. "The fact that most of our team is coming together before games to make sure we look our best and all helping each other out," Gyasi says, "is what womanhood is all about." When looking good and feeling good are this deeply collective, playing good starts to make perfect sense.
Read the original at Vogue.
