Brittney Griner with short hair Griner chopped her dreads because they froze after showers

Brittney Griner, who was seen with closely cropped hair in images of her swap for arms dealer Viktor “Merchant of Death” Bout, was not forced to chop off her signature dreads — she cut them because they froze in the brutal Russian cold.

Griner got her locks shorn two Sundays ago to prevent the hair from turning into icicles every time she took a shower, the WNBA star’s attorney Maria Blagovolina told ESPN’s TJ Quinn.

“It’s very cold in there and every time she washed her hair, she got cold and would get a chill,” the lawyer said, referring to the penal colony.

“She should have waited until New Year’s Day,” the lawyer added jokingly.

Blagovolina, who represented Griner during her trial, said the two-time Olympic gold medalist recently recovered from a bout with the flu.

The lawyer told Quinn that Griner’s stint at the IK-2 prison in Mordovia was not that bad.

“She had honestly no complaints. Things could have been much worse,” she said.

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