Five-time world champion and fan favourite Raymond van Barneveld returns to the Alexandra Palace stage this evening to kick off his latest PDC World Darts Championship campaign.
Spearing off at around 8pm, the Dutch legend will face Switzerland’s Stefan Bellmont in the opening round with Barney the clear favourite with bookmakers to sweep the world No.111 aside.
While millions of eyes will be focused on the action on the Ally Pally stage, attention will also inevitably turn to Van Barneveld’s unique hairdo. Despite defeating many of the sport’s top stars, including sixteen-time World Championship winner Phil Taylor, the 58-year-old has struggled in his fight against every middle-aged man’s worst nightmare – hair loss.
To counter the balding, Van Barneveld headed to a hair transplant studio in his native Netherlands with Barney jokingly likening his new look to that of a toy figure. He wrote: “Always been a big fan of @playmboil with my ‘Playmobil Hair’. Thought I’d say it before someone else does!”
But Van Barneveld did not get a traditional hair transplant, instead opting for a procedure with a company named Transhair that saw stubble tattooed onto his head, leaving the star sporting a distinctive look that has captured the attention of fans.
Transhair provide a handy guide to the operation on their website. They say: “Raymond van Barneveld opted for the so-called MHP hair pigmentation treatment in our clinic. So actually it is not correct when we say ‘hair transplantation’, because MHP is a different type of treatment.
“With this technique we tattoo stubble on the scalp. This way you create a shaven look, as it were. This treatment is perfect for anyone who has short, shaved hair and where baldness has already progressed.
“With this innovate MHP technique – also called stubble tattoo – small stubbles are imitated, so that it appears as if the head has been shaved. The result looks very natural. Our Micro Hair Pigmentation treatments are carried out by Clinic4Hair, a sister company of Transhair that has specialists with years of experience in this field.”
Barney will hope for a better run at this year’s Worlds after the Dutchman was dumped out in the second round last year by Welshman Nick Kenny. Two years ago, the Hague-born star went out in the fourth round after a 4-1 defeat to a certain 16-year-old Luke Littler.
A former world No.1, Van Barneveld was crowned world champion four times on the BDO before moving to the rival PDC tour in 2007. That year, he defeated arch-rival Taylor 7-6 in a final widely hailed as one of the greatest darts matches of all time.
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