‘You have to be perfect’: Astera Tuhina on her hair — and Oregon’s matchup with Texas

AUSTIN – A day before the biggest basketball game of her career, Oregon guard Astera Tuhina spoke of a challenge her teammates have come to expect. 

“There’s a lot of pressure on them,” Tuhina said Saturday, March 21, after practice at the Moody Center. “Sometimes I’m really stressed and it makes them stressed. But they understand there’s no room for error. You have to be perfect.”

Could Tuhina have been talking about the No. 1 Texas Longhorns, who await Oregon on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament?

Sure.

But Tuhina wasn’t talking about Texas, who rolled Missouri State by 42 points Friday. She was talking about her hair, which viewers of Oregon’s 70-60 win over Virginia Tech on Friday saw patterned into a bright green spiderweb.

Tuhina has been shaving her head off and on since her junior year of high school in Spain. She grew it out during her first three years of college at Washington State, arrived in Eugene this summer with a mullet, got bored and shaved it all off right before this season’s media day.

In the six months since, her scalp has become a canvas. She’s shown up to games with hearts, the outline of a hand and the Grateful Dead’s Dancing Bears. She’s dyed it pink, blonde and tie-dye. There have been flames and smiley faces. She often gets her ideas from Pinterest.

“It speaks about her character and the person she is — she just does that,” said teammate and roommate Elisa Mevius. “I did the hearts. I liked those a lot. I was begging her to let me do it. She’s like, ‘Make sure they’re even!’ and I’m like shaking in the back trying to do it.

“But you can always fix it. We always do it a day or two ahead of a game when we do it, so technically we could just always bleach it again.”

There’s less room for error Sunday.

The Ducks are 26.5-point underdogs against an opponent that will fill the Moody Center with home fans. The Longhorns won the SEC Tournament last week, beat South Carolina by 17 points, have lost only three games all season and are a legitimate contender to win the national title.

“They understand this is big,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “But we try to make it as normal as possible.”

Saturday, that meant a light workout on Texas’ campus, a few interviews and an afternoon spent watching games from around the country.

It’s the first time Tuhina has made it to the second round of the NCAAs — she reached the tournament once as a Washington State freshman — and she said she’s enjoying the moment.

“Kelly told us yesterday that only 32 teams make it to the second round, so I think we’re just grateful to be here and obviously we’re going to compete tomorrow,” she said. “Everything is possible.”

And if the improbable happens and Oregon’s run continues, so will the hair.

“It probably isn’t good for my scalp because I bleach it so much,” she said. “I’ll have to take a break and grow it out a little (after the tournament), and then go back to it when you least expect it.”