Chicago Has a Deep Love for Formerly Bald Sports Stars and Ryne Sandberg is the Latest

Brian Urlacher’s new hair was the second biggest Chicago sports story in 2016, registering slightly behind the Cubs’ World Series victory. An entire city’s spirit was buoyed by seeing the former Bears linebacker’s smooth dome turn into a fertile garden of seedlings.

Somewhat predictably, a steady stream of former sports stars from the city followed suit and got some fancy new hair themselves: Eddie Olczyk, Jim Cornelison, Bryan Bickell and Jason McKie.

This morning, Restore, the suburban company behind all the comeback follicles, unveiled their newest client.

Here’s Ryne Sandberg before … and after.

Wow. Look at that guy on the right. He looks like he’s spry enough to go out there and blast four homers on a windy Wrigley Field day.

“Just having the longer hair to style like I did back in the playin’ days, takes me back a little bit. It feels good,” Sandberg said on WGN this morning.

Nothing like seeing a guy reclaim his mojo in real time. Inspiring stuff.

The obvious end point for this trend is the most famous bald former Chicago star: his hairless Michael Jordan. It’s going to be extremely jarring to see him selling somewhat real-looking fuzz on his head. Really only a matter of time until he eclipse LeBron James’ coverage.