Mayor is lightening up to wish Lanier players luck

Mayor Julián Castro will go blond to support Lanier basketball. Mayor Julián Castro will go blond to support Lanier basketball. Photo: 2014 Getty Images Photo: 2014 Getty Images Image 1 of / 123 Caption Close Mayor is lightening up to wish Lanier players luck 1 / 123 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — When the mayor reports to his hairdresser Saturday morning for his headline-grabbing dye job, he'll have to hope she gets it right.

Mayor Julián Castro will debut a blond 'do Saturday in a show of solidarity with the Lanier High School basketball team, who challenged him to join them in their tradition of dyeing their hair for the playoffs.

Sources close to Castro confirmed Friday he would have his hair professionally colored — in private — before Saturday's meeting with the team at La Trinidad United Methodist Church. And he'll promptly return to his natural black Monday, after a pep rally at the school.

The trick to going blond, said hair stylist Tina Ruiz, is making sure the lightening process (read: bleaching) goes without a hitch and that it's applied and timed perfectly — otherwise the results could be a hot mess.

“If you don't get it right you run the risk of the hair looking too brassy,” she warned. The other extreme is too yellow (as in Big Bird). And then there are all those in-between hues of humiliation (think: Halloween orange).

Ruiz and her staff at House of Styles Salon will be on hand Saturday to lighten the hair of 14 Voks varsity basketball players.

She'll be watching when the mayor arrives to wish the team well.

“I'll definitely be checking out his hair,” she said. “I can spot a dye job from a box a mile away.”

The Lanier team tradition started more than 10 years ago as a show of commitment and to mark the team's rise to state competition.

“They've got to look good on the court,” said Ruiz, who will pack several hair dryer chairs, a bag full of blow-dryers and enough bleaching powder to transform the young athletes. In the past they've dyed their own locks, which can be risky “because it is harder to get dark hair to a lighter color — it's a process,” she said.

“I want to give the champions a professional look that they can be really proud of,” Ruiz said. “Plus, with us being there, it'll make it easier for them — and less damaging for their hair, which can happen when you do this on your own.”

Alex Gonzales, the church's youth director of outreach ministry, is helping coordinate Saturday's event, which will take place in the gym, complete with sinks for the players to shampoo.

“The Lanier community is used to this because this has been a near 15-year tradition,” he said. “But with the mayor promising what he did, that's something new. As long as he shows up with his blond hair — that's what people are looking forward to.”

Gonzales and his staff have prepared 350 seats for the potluck but purchased 1,000 paper plates — just in case.