Adam Karon E-mail Karon at gianthater@yahoo.com. Click Here
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It’s seven in the morning on Wednesday, and Natina Gurley
should be sleeping or studying. She has a life science midterm
later in the day, but is wide awake and playing with hair as the
sun comes up.
Gurley has a very important job. She keeps UCLA athletes looking
good. On this particular morning her subject was Bruin forward T.J
Cummings, who was in a particular hurry because he needed to be
ready for Thursday’s game against Arizona.
Cummings is known for his intense rebounding, short jumper and
funky hair braids, which range from standard corn rows to crazy
zigzags. Gurley is responsible for the hair, and has even stenciled
U-C-L-A into the 6-foot-10 sophomore’s head. She takes no
credit for his rebounding or jumper.
“Sometimes I come in with ideas and she just breaks them
down,” Cummings says of how each pattern is designed.
“She can do anything.”
Anything but braid the brown locks of a sportswriter with short
tresses and an even shorter attention span. The process takes about
45 minutes, depending on the length of hair and style. That means
those who wish to taste Gurley’s talent must sit still for
almost a full hour, nearly impossible for those born into
Generation Ritalin.
Her subject perches on a pillow while she sits behind on the
couch, controlling his head with strong, nimble hands.
“I usually don’t think about what I want it to look
like,” she said. “I just start braiding and
something comes out. I never do the same thing
twice.”
Gurley’s patterns are good enough to earn her a reputation
on campus and even draw remarks from strangers. At the annual
football awards banquet, an elderly lady told sophomore Craig Bragg
that he deserved the trophy for best hair.
Sometimes when Gurley is introduced to someone, they say,
“Oh, so you’re the one who does the braids!”
 Like an architect, people may not know her by name, but they
recognize her work.
Gurley’s talent is also a curse. She is so good at what
she does that the door to her suite literally protects her from a
steady barrage of braidees.
She first began gaining clients on the football team three years
ago when her cousin, UCLA running back Akil Harris, let word of her
manual dexterity slip to the team.
Now she has to plan her class schedule around braiding during
football season, making sure to take Fridays off to accommodate the
squad. This is no easy commitment for a woman who is a
physiological science student as well as a residential assistant in
Saxon Suites.
Like any artist, Gurley hates to see her work destroyed, but
every week it happens when her precious braids are torn loose by
football trauma.
“I could pull it tight enough to make their scalps bleed
and it would still come undone with all that sweat,” Gurley
said.
After practice, players race each other to her door to be first
in line for braiding. After that it’s a free-for-all.
“They kind of just make themselves at home,” Gurley
said. “I’ll be braiding someone’s hair, and
next thing I know, they’re playing video games, eating my
food, answering my phone. But we’re friends, and I do the
same things at their places.”
All except the braiding. She’d never let their clumsy
fingers near her hair.
I went to Gurley’s apartment interested in improving my
own hairstyle. Hey, there’s a reason I wear a hat in my mug
shot. Pretty much any hairstyle would be an improvement.
I soon realized that the most important aspect of braiding is
patience ““ a word that has not existed in my vocabulary since
Jim Everett began his quest to take the Rams to the Super Bowl.
One must first grow his or her hair to acceptable
length. Neither Bragg nor Cummings has had a haircut in a year
and a half. Bragg plans on growing his until he graduates.
Both he and Gurley say that growing it out is the hardest part.
Gurley thinks the long hair is ugly.
“If it’s long enough to be braided, it needs to be
braided,” she said.
Next, one must convince Gurley to perform the
operation. She rarely charges for her services because after
sitting with someone’s head in her lap each week, they
usually become pretty close.
But don’t come knocking just yet.
“This is not an open invitation to the whole
campus,” she stressed.
After all, the woman is working on a career in sports medicine
and studies more than new hair patterns.
Her clients have included but are not limited to football
players Brian Poli-Dixon, DeShaun Foster, Marques Anderson, Sean
Phillips, basketball players Cummings and Josiah Johnson, tennis
player Megan Bradley and most of the women’s track team.
If they are half as fast on the track as Gurley is with their
hair, then this team is poised for another national
championship.
Gurley makes it look easy, fluttering her hands around her
subject’s head with grace, tucking and pulling and twisting
and parting. She says there’s nothing to it, and that she
practices on her own hair.
I tried taking her advice, but ended up with aching fingers and
a head full of knots.
Note to self: never try to hold braids in place with crazy
glue.
Gurley’s dedication to UCLA athletes is admirable, and
they do not take her for granted.
“I have no idea what I’m going to do when
she’s gone,” Bragg said during a recent braiding
session.
The next time you’re admiring her handiwork on the
basketball court, remember that beauty does not come without a
price.
Where were you at seven in the morning the day of your toughest
midterm?
Memories!