- WNBA superstar Brittney Griner is back in the United States after 10 months in Russian custody.
- Footage of the prisoner swap that secured her freedom showed Griner without her signature dreadlocks.
- She chose to cut her hair herself and was not forced to do so, sources confirmed to Insider.
Brittney Griner is back in the United States after 10 months detained in Russia.
The world eagerly awaited updates on the WNBA superstar’s condition and whereabouts after news broke that the White House and the Kremlin agreed to a prisoner swap setting her free in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Mere hours after President Joe Biden’s press conference alongside Griner’s wife, Cherelle, footage emerged of the moment Griner and Bout walked past each other on an airport tarmac in the United Arab Emirates and boarded flights to their respective home countries.
But one detail stood out from the clips circulating the web; the 6-foot-9 Phoenix Mercury center’s signature dreadlocks were gone.
—ТАСС (@tass_agency) December 8, 2022
Many on social media were quick to assume that Griner was forced to cut her hair in the early days of her tenure at a Russian penal colony. But the two-time Olympic gold medalist actually chose to cut her hair short on her own volition.
A source close to Griner confirmed to Insider that the 32-year-old decided on the haircut ahead of what was sure to be a brutal Russian winter at a facility with limited heat and hot water. As ESPN’s TJ Quinn first reported, Griner would get a chill every time she washed her locks.
By late November, she’d had enough of the inconvenience. Her Russian attorney, Maria Blagovolina, told Quinn that Griner was trying to make her life easier inside of the penal colony — where she expected to stay long-term — so she opted for the chop.
REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool
“She should have waited until New Year’s Day,” Blagovolina said.
Aside from her new hair, Griner appeared relatively content and at ease in subsequent videos that emerged throughout the day. In one such clip, a person off-camera asks Griner how she’s feeling, and she responds, “Happy,” with a big smile.
Griner also confirms that she isn’t sure exactly where her plane is headed, but she knows she’s headed back to the United States.
—Chronology (@Chronology22) December 8, 2022
Griner landed in San Antonio, Texas, in the early hours of Friday morning, where she was set to receive a medical evaluation at the Brooke Army Medical Center. Her wife was meant to meet her in the Lone Star state following her visit to the White House.
