The subject of Trae Young’s hair has always captured the imaginations of the public. However, rumors and hearsay often obscure the truth. The astonishing facts of Young’s hairstyle have only ever been known in tantalizing fragments…until today. After spending months interviewing those closest to the rising star for the Atlanta Hawks, the hard-hitting NBA journalist DownToBuck is finally unveiling what might be his most controversial work yet: a two-part oral history of Trae Young’s hair, in the words of those who experienced it firsthand.
Raw and unfiltered, these interviews provide a stunning narrative containing details so scandalous that even the most schizophrenic conspiracy theorists would have dismissed them. Lesser journalists would have whitewashed this unsavory history to be more suitable for consumption by the masses. But DownToBuck is a champion of the truth, and now the story of Trae Young’s hair moves from legend to fact.
If you appreciate the hard work that goes into crafting journalism of this impeccably high quality, consider donating to my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/downtobuck
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RAY YOUNG (Trae Young’s Father): When Trae came into this world bald as a doorknob, that’s when I started getting a bad feeling about all of this.
TRAE YOUNG: You know, infants don’t have the ability to form memories, so if you want to get anywhere with this interview, you’re gonna have to skip ahead a few years.
CANDICE YOUNG (Trae Young’s Mother): Ray was a bit alarmed when Trae was born with no hair, but I reassured him that it’s normal for babies to not have any hair. He didn’t quite believe me until all of Trae’s siblings were born the same way.
RAY YOUNG: Are my sperms defective?
DR. JIM RICHARDS (Young Family Doctor): Trae was a thriving little boy and his dad was healthier than many fathers that I see. Really, I can’t say any more than that without violating HIPAA.
CANDICE YOUNG: The first haircut is rough on any little boy. Trae cried and cried when we sat him down in the barber’s chair, but he got a lollipop at the end, so I don’t think he was too traumatized by it. He certainly had no problem going in for future haircuts.
TRAE YOUNG: I always liked going to the barber. They let you pick out a sucker from the bowl. I always went for the butterscotch flavor.
RAY YOUNG: I was so relieved when Trae needed to go get his first haircut. That meant he wasn’t as defective as I feared he would be. I sneaked off back to the car and wept tears of pure joy.
MISSY O’CONNOR (Owner, Missy’s Clips Barber Shop): I would definitely remember giving a haircut to a child who was displaying signs of male-pattern baldness at age three.
CAITLYN YOUNG (Trae Young’s Sister): No, I don’t remember any time where I walked into my bedroom to find that Trae had cut the hair off all my Barbies. That’s a really specific question. Who did you say you were again?
DONTAY CARTWRIGHT (Trae Young’s Childhood Friend): Out of everything you could ask, you want to talk about Trae’s hair? Don’t you want to hear about how he was dominating the playground from age six? I could tell stories for days. His crossover was brutal.
TRAE YOUNG: You ever seen a six-year-old cross up another six-year-old? There were a lot of tears during recess. My classmates were always telling on me, saying I pushed them down or whatever. Lies. They couldn’t handle my handles.
RAY YOUNG: I was a point guard in college, so I always steered Trae in that direction. He was clowning older kids starting in elementary school. Every day I would check my hairline in the mirror to see if it was receding.
DR. JIM RICHARDS: I take great personal and professional offense to the fact that you just offered me ten thousand dollars to falsely claim that Trae suffers from a rare genetic condition called Capillus Minimus that causes early-onset baldness.
TRAE YOUNG: Once I got to middle school, I started thinking about girls in a new way.
CANDICE YOUNG: Trae wanted a “cool” haircut and “cool” clothes so that he could fit in. I think it started when he came home in tears one day because a girl in his class called him “cotton candy head”.
MARIA MARTINEZ (Trae Young’s Eighth-Grade Classmate): I remember calling Trae “cotton candy head” in the middle of math class. It was a mean thing to say, but I stand by it. Trae didn’t really have a hairstyle. It was just a bunch of hair sticking out everywhere.
DONTAY CARTWRIGHT: Yeah, we ragged on him for his hair, but we were in middle school. Everything was insults, penis jokes, and energy drinks. He called me “penis boy” one time, like, with the implication that I sucked on a lot of penises, or whatever.
TRAE YOUNG: Sometimes I would get angry that my mixed-race hair couldn’t do the same things that black hair could do or that white hair could do. But the girls seemed to like me, and it’s not like I had a rattail or something really embarrassing like that, so I guess it was alright.