One of the newest Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders has shaken the team up as she deviated from the squad’s signature hairstyle.
Last week, as the new group of America’s Sweethearts was announced, fans were quick to notice that one dancer, Faith Ward, was not wearing her hair down in long, freshly curled locks and instead had her hair up in a ponytail.
After more and more people turned to the DCC social media pages to ask about the ponytail, Ward — who is the first person from New Zealand to make the team — broke her silence.
Speaking Monday to ABC Perth, Ward acknowledged how different her hair is from the rest of the team. “It’s crazy because obviously the DCC hairstyle is out, fluffy, voluminous, luscious, long locks. I’ve broken that stereotype,” she said.
The dancer recalled that the director of the organization, Kelli Finglass, was the first person to suggest the idea of tying her hair up for football games. “So, I’m in rehearsal one of the days with my hair out and I am, you know, sweating after doing ‘Thunderstruck,’” Ward said about the DCC’s iconic pregame dance.
“She’s looking at me and she’s like, ‘You know what? I really want to see what your hair would look like tied up.’”
Finglass then approved of Ward’s updo, which the rookie was thankful for because she didn’t want “her hair out, sweaty in her face [while] dancing.”
“I go into uniform fittings and keep my hair up in hopes that she would like it still, and I walk in and she goes, ‘You’re giving Ariana Grande! Like, we need an Ariana Grande moment on the team,” Ward continued. “‘Are you serious right now, Kelli? Like this is so exciting!’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, but I want your ponytail longer, I want it blonder, and then I want to see a cameo day where I prefer you be with your hair out.’”
Cameo day, where the entire team takes their professional headshots, has not happened yet, so Ward is still waiting for final confirmation on her updo.
“So the reason why I haven’t addressed it yet is because I want to wait and see what she has to say as to whether it’s solidified,” she said. “So right now, it’s looking very hopeful that I will be a DCC with a ponytail.”
“But, we still have to keep an open mind to the possibility that I could be going back to be hair out. So we can’t get too excited yet!” Ward added.
Although Ward may be on her way to making DCC history for the second time, she isn’t the first person on the team to not sport the big and bouncy curls as a second-year veteran, Ava Lahey, previously mentioned why she was allowed to wear her hair straight.
“The number one question I get asked as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader is ‘Why do I get to wear my hair straight?’” she said in an Instagram Reel posted last month.
“When I made it to training camp for the first time, I tried curling my hair, but it never really held,” Lahey continued. “During rookie makeovers, they told me to try wearing it straight, and I’ll never forget it. When I went back to rehearsal, one of the comments was, ‘It dances better.’”