Neymarmania hits Brazilians

With a razor, Ferreira will turn a neck into Neymar’s face, Brazil’s flag or the tournament’s armadillo mascot Fuleco.

RIO DE JANEIRO: Anderson Guimaraes walked into a barber shop decorated with Brazil flags to get the latest popular hairstyle in Rio’s slums: the face of football star Neymar sculpted in the back of his head.

World Cup fever and Neymarmania have literally gone to some Brazilians’ heads courtesy of Marcelo Ferreira, a 22-year-old ‘craque’ — or whiz in the barbershop lying between the Manguinhos and Jacarezinho favelas.

With a razor, Ferreira will turn a neck into Neymar’s face, Brazil’s flag, the tournament’s armadillo mascot Fuleco or the six stars representing the sixth World Cup title that the nation hopes to capture.

Guimaraes, 24, came to get the Neymar special for a second time.

He held up a tablet with a black and white picture of the Barcelona forward. Ferreira used a black pen to carefully trace the face in the back of the client’s head and sharpened his razor before getting to work.

The first time he got the haircut, at the start of the Cup, “people wanted to take pictures with me,” said Guimaraes.

“When I took the subway, people asked where I got it and the barbershop’s phone number. I had a lot of success with the girls,” he said, laughing.

It takes Ferreira three hours to finish his masterpiece. It costs $45, quite a sum for favela residents.

Yuri Nascimento, 11, would love to get the Neymar special, but his mother has no job and raises three children with government welfare checks of $191 per month.

He finally settles for a $6 ‘delta wing’. A curly mohawk with the sides shaved.

“Some clients want their hair cut like Messi’s. Others like Cristiano Ronaldo’s. But what I like the most is drawing Neymar,” said Ferreira. His Neymar figures are precise, featuring the player’s diamond earrings, baseball cap and blondish hair.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2014.

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