Thai breakdancer urges hair growth cash as headspins make his locks fall out

A Thai national breakdancing athlete is asking someone to sponsor him for hair growth treatment, saying his team is losing their locks when they compete.

Kantapon Rodsaart, known as T-Flow, represented Thailand in early October at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. Breakdancing was added this year to the Games for the first time, and Rodsaart was one of the 66 dancers who competed.

Kantapon, 29, was speaking to Thai media about facilities and support that his team needs and brought up hair care, per an interview published by Thai PBS News.

According to the breakdancer, his hair tends to fall out because he spins on his head frequently.

“I have to wear a hat while dancing to protect my hair because it’s thin. The more I dance, especially on a rough floor, the more my hair falls out,” Kantapon said, per a translation by the Guardian newspaper. “So, I would like to ask for support or sponsorship for hair treatment.”

Kantapon later took off his cap to show a bald spot forming at the top of his head. One of his teammates showed the cameras that he was completely bald.

The breakdancer said he wasn’t joking. “I am serious about this. It would boost my confidence. Currently, I have to wear two hats. If I don’t wear it, you will see a shine from my head,” he said.

He added that he hoped to keep a lusher head of hair like athletes from other countries.

A bald spot that arises from headspins is often called a “headspin hole” by so-called B-boys and B-girls.

In a 2020 case report published in the peer-reviewed Radiology Case Reports journal, medical researchers in Nevada described the “headspin hole” as an “overuse injury” that can often form a painless lump on the top of a dancer’s head.

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Using magnetic resonance imagery, they found that a 38-year-old male who frequently performed headspins had a “cone-shaped deformity” on the top of his skull.

The “headspin hole” can be common among breakdancers, according to a 2009 study in the Sportverletz Sportschaden journal.

German researchers interviewed 106 break dancers and found that 60.4 per cent of them “suffered from overuse of the scalp due to the headspin”. Around 31 per cent of the dancers suffered from hair loss.