THE Women’s World Cup kicked off in fine style in Berlin on Sunday.

There were some terrific saves, some pulsating goals scored and, generally, the match between defending champions Germany and Canada was played at pace.

But, girls, your HAIRSTYLES!

Last year, the men chartered a special Boeing to fly in their gel and stylists.

And, when the plane touched down at OR Tambo, their crates of hair treatment bounced to the roof of the hold. The big bird wobbled, but the booty was safe.

The game was on!

We saw matches played in rain, wind, sleet where carefully, no obsessively tended coifs withstood the hurly burly of the contact sport, and the ravages of the weather.

Short, bleached, cornrows, Afros, those spiky-on-top ones; they all held their own under trying conditions, and the boys looked fabulous when the final whistle blew.

Nicely trimmed eyebrows and coloured lashes too, and not a blemish on all those pretty, well-managed faces.

The visages in Berlin were, well, to put it kindly, clamped into bland by business-like hairdos.

Ok, there were some flying locks – later — whipping this way and that – but generally, the girls were as one: flat, scraped-off-face hair tortured into tight ponytails rolled into golf-ball size nothings.

The short-haired blonde stuck out; maybe because she’s as pretty as a boy.

(ends)