Manchester United ‘no win, no hair trim’ challenge still not over

A Manchester United fan has gone almost a year without a haircut after pledging not to have a trim until his team won five games in a row.

Frank Ilett, originally from Oxford but now living in Spain, started growing his “afro-style” hair in October last year as a way to “spread some humour” among fellow fans after a tough start to the season.

But he said the challenge, which he has been documenting on Instagram to his more than 330,000 followers, had been going on for “a lot longer than I ever expected”.

He said: “It’s been an absolutely crazy journey – I never expected my hair, or my following, to be as big as it has become.”

The life-long United fan said the closest he had come to getting a trim was in January when the team won three games in a row but his dreams were dashed when they lost to Crystal Palace in early February.

Mr Ilett told BBC Radio Manchester there was a run of “kind of winnable” games for his side starting in late November.

“I’m hopeful that maybe by the end of the year, maybe I’ll get a haircut,” he said.

“The perfect ending would be one of the players to cut it at Old Trafford.”