“Football culture has always influenced the way people express themselves through their appearance,” says Ami Fall, the hair artist better known online as THICKCUTS. In her latest project, Heads of State, she leans into this relationship with a particular focus on hair, through painted buzzcuts in the flags of different World Cup contenders.

From the cuts and colours that make headlines every World Cup – Beckham’s fauxhawk, Brazilian Ronaldo’s shaved front patch, Taribo West’s radioactive green braids, or anytime a player has bleached his hair – to the supporters who dye their locks in their team’s colours, hair is a big part of football culture. It’s this legacy that Fall taps into with Heads of State. Working with photographer Bet Bettencourt and beauty platform Treatwell, she began with countries that hold a strong football identity, while also considering how colour combinations could create visual contrast and tell a broader story of identity.

The line-up includes Brazil, England, France and Portugal, the flags of which painted onto the shaved heads of models. Each look took several hours to complete, involving bleaching, colour placement and final execution. “A lot of time also goes into developing the visual concepts beforehand and figuring out how to translate a country’s visual identity and heritage into something that works as hair art,” says Fall. As the World Cup sees flags plastered across t-shirts, banners and even tattoos, this series brings that celebration into hair, treating national colours and symbols as “wearable art rather than fan merchandise”.

“Football is one of the few things that connects people across so many different backgrounds, cultures and generations,” says Fall, who grew up in London, a city where football culture was a bedrock across the different diaspora communities. “Right now, it feels extra special to intersect those two worlds.”

This latest venture builds on Fall’s existing portfolio of brightly bleached buzzcuts, which she described as “sharp, experimental and loud” in a previous interview with Dazed. The initial project started on a living room floor with a couple of friends then quickly spiralled into DMs, bookings, a cult following, and eventually THICKCUTS, a page dedicated to documenting the vibrant colour designs she paints across heads.