Anyone who has gazed as adoringly at Robbie Savage in the TV studio as he himself gazes in the mirror will know that the football player-turned-Match Of The Day pundit sports fine flowing locks.
As MOTD viewers will also know, he has now taken to wearing these tied back in a ponytail, lending him the air of a 1990s rocker about to break into a 12-verse power ballad of exquisite sadness.
His appearance next to the equally dapper Dion Dublin on the MOTD couch at the weekend even caused a few headlines of the "Who is the best dressed football pundit?" variety. The question was rhetorical because the answer is self-evident. It's Robbie Savage. Why? It's the ponytail, of course.
But the power of the ponytail isn't just about its ability to enhance male beauty or signal the counter-culture credentials of the wearer. As exuberantly-moustached Indian showman Sailen Roy showed this week, it can also prove useful when you don't have a tow rope. As a crowd of his countrymen watched on amazed, the 45-year-old used his ponytail to pull a train engine with four coaches attached – 41 tonnes in all – for a distance of about six feet.
"This kind of stunt's not performed by anybody in any other country," he told a reporter afterwards. "I want to teach this technique to 10 to 12 people so they can make this country proud." He added: "It would be very helpful if the West Bengal government would provide some assistance to me."
Sailen Roy? Could he have Caledonian forebears through the Rob Roy line? If the West Bengal government doesn't come through for him I'm sure his is the kind of project Creative Scotland would love to throw funding at. The moral, then, is this: don't mock men with ponytails.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article