Long braids and a red bandanna are part of Willie Nelson’s iconic look.
But that wasn’t always the case.
And Willie Nelson revealed the shocking reason he decided to cut off his iconic braids.
Willie Nelson cut off one of his braids as part of a prank
Country music legend Willie Nelson recently turned 91 years old, and he still has the same signature stage look of a red bandanna and long braids.
He started off his career as a typical clean-cut country music artist in Nashville, but his appearance and his music began to change in 1972.
Nelson moved to Austin, Texas, and grew his hair out as part of the counterculture scene and was involved in the music industry there.
And that was where he changed his sound and became one of the pioneers of the outlaw country movement.
Nelson is famous for his sense of humor, even in the most serious of circumstances.
During a medical emergency, he pulled a prank on his doctor that scared the living daylights out of him.
“I had a lung collapse one time and I went to the hospital,” Nelson told Southern Living. “While I was waiting there, I decided to cut my braids off. Took scissors, cut them off (at shoulder length), and just left them laying there.”
Most people would be scared to death being at a hospital with a collapsed lung, but not the Red-Headed Stranger.
“My doctor came in to see me and he said, ‘How are you doing?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, I think this medicine might be having a bad effect on me’ and I pulled out my braids. He freaked out,” Nelson recalled.
Even this late into his life, Nelson is still touring and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
He revealed in a recent Southern Living interview that he doesn’t let worry consume his life.
“I think worry will make you sick,” Nelson remarked. “I’ve never seen it accomplish anything. I’ve never seen worrying about anything change it. So I decided not to do it.”
Willie Nelson cuts off his braids again to help a friend
In 2010, Nelson cut off his braids for a shorter haircut, which generated headlines when he changed his signature look.
His website called it the “haircut heard around the world.”
In 1983, he cut off his braids to help one of his closest friends, fellow outlaw country music star Waylon Jennings, celebrate his first anniversary of sobriety after battling a cocaine addiction.
Country legend Johnny Cash decided to throw a party to celebrate Jennings’ anniversary.
But Nelson was on tour at the time, so he couldn’t make the party and decided to give him a gift instead.
He cut off his braids for the first time since he started growing them out and sent them with his wife to give to his now-sober friend.
And according to Jennings’ wife, Jessi Colter, he loved the present.
“(Connie Nelson) brought the braids from Willie, who was on tour. It just tickled Waylon,” Colter told USA Today.
Those same braids were later sold in 2014 for $37,000 to raise money for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Willie Nelson’s hair has almost as many crazy stories involving it as the Red-Headed Stranger himself.
