Jean-Philippe Mateta is having a blast as Crystal Palace’s forward. He has eight goals in 2025 for the Eagles, with no other Premier League player outscoring him in this year so far.
The Frenchman’s goal in the recent 4-1 win over Aston Villa took him to 36 Premier League goals for Crystal Palace. He is their second-highest goalscorer in the division, only behind Wilfried Zaha (68 goals). Mateta has really picked up his form this season, with 12 goals in 27 league games.
However, something that has surprised many fans is just how Mateta’s hairstyle has changed over the years. He’s been at Crystal Palace since January 2021, initially arriving on loan before being permanently signed from Mainz.
When he initially arrived at Crystal Palace, Mateta had a head full of hair. He had a fascinating braided hairstyle upon joining the Eagles in early 2021. The Frenchman had a variety of small, curly braids aligned together on his head, making him look quite funky.
This, however, would be changed when he joined Crystal Palace on a permanent basis in February, 2022. That is because early signs of Mateta’s hair thinning were starting to be clear from this point. The French forward opted for a ‘pop smoke’ braided hairstyle when he rejoined the Premier League side.
In this hairstyle, the sides of his head were fully trimmed. He also opted to keep unique braids stuck to his head in an effort to look really cool.
Mateta scored five Premier League goals in his first full campaign with Crystal Palace (2021/22). In this campaign, he mostly maintained a braided hairstyle. The 27-year-old mostly maintained a round-headed braid style for the 2021/22 season.
Here his side areas were trimmed and he opted to keep his hair separated in relatively short-sized braids.
The Frenchman, however, opted to start significantly changed up his appearance starting from the 2022/23 season. He actually began the campaign by sporting a cornrows hairstyle, which basically meant braiding his hair into a series of rows close to his scalp. He even ‘tied’ his braided hair towards its end to keep them from being messed up.
Mateta’s first goal in the 2022/23 campaign came in the 3-1 win over Aston Villa on August 21 (2022). He’d experience a major goal drought after that. It seems like the Frenchman might’ve blamed his hair for that drought. He scored his second goal of the 2022/23 Premier League season in the 2-1 win over Leicester City.
But midway through that campaign, he made the drastic decision to go fully bald. Rather than trying out something else than a braided hairstyle, he completely shaved everything off and opted for a shiny bald head.
Every Jean-Philippe Mateta @premierleague goal
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) February 26, 2025#CPFC pic.twitter.com/zD0sq1cn9A
Well, the 27-year-old has maintained this same bald style for the last two-and-a-half seasons now. Mateta hasn’t really given any explanation for why he suddenly decided to bald. He didn’t even opt for a hair transplant, something that has benefitted players like Mo Salah and Gabriel Magalhaes.
In a ‘Photo Album’ interview with Crystal Palace in 2024, Mateta simply reminisced, ‘I have hair, I have hair’ when seeing a picture from his younger days. Most fans are bamboozled in having to remember that the striker actually had hair.
One Crystal Palace fan hilariously commented ‘This is so funny man because 1/4 of the way through he just goes bald and turns into R9 will forever love you Jean-Philippe.’
To his credit, Mateta’s goal record has significantly improved since he went bald. When he had hair, he had scored seven goals in the Premier League. Since going bald, he’s scored 29 times in the league – which includes the 12 goals this season. The Frenchman’s bald head might actually be his lucky charm!
