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Justin Bieber in Los Angeles in October.
By BG005/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images.
Justin Bieber got a haircut. He posted a photo to his Instagram Stories on Tuesday night with the roguish smile of a man who knows this kind of changeup will cause ripples across the Internet for at least one news cycle, no matter what is happening in the world. Where there was once his signature mop of runaway strands, there is now a buzz cut. Where there was once a gold-tinged sloppy bun, there is now negative space. He’s a shorn little lamb. He’s Samson, clipped and powerless.
But, also, there is a pair of little scissors there in the photo, so maybe he is Delilah in this scenario, too? Like he’s the one who took his own superpowers away as a gesture of humility? Is this a useful metaphor? I can’t tell. Maybe not. He looks happy and strong and like a new man with a fresh look. He doesn’t look too defeated, unless he’s happily defeated, as if his wife, Hailey Baldwin, made him get a haircut and he’s jokingly saying something like, “My old lady made me do it. I can’t say know to this ol’ ball and chain, you know what I mean?” And they shoot each other a smile, and squeeze each others hands once or twice.
Drastic hair changes can certainly signal the worst. A breakup or a breakdown, typically. But Bieber’s head has gone through so many radical iterations over the years that this doesn’t seem like a cause for concern. Gone is the pompadour of ’14, for example; gone is the “Can I see your manager?” haircut of ’15; gone are the dreaded dreads of ’16; gone is the scummy, grimy style-less style of ’18, and here is a look closer to Bieber a year ago—a hopeful Bieber, a post-apology tour Bieber, where he had traveled around the world and sang “Sorry” countless times, and came out the other side apparently redeemed. He looks great, is all I’m saying. He’s tried so many styles over the years, and this one is also a perfectly good one.
I suppose his choosing a buzz cut mere days before daylight saving time pitches this country into early darkness does take opposite tack of common hair wisdom, which is: longer for winter; shorter for summer. So there is an obstinance there, a willingness to go against the grain, hair-wise and maybe also life-wise. But also he’s Justin Bieber. He’s above that conventional wisdom, simply by virtue of his access to private aircrafts. He’s not bound to this Earth or any particular environs. He’s not tethered to this or that clime. He’s in Italy one day, and in Canada the next. He’s never in Argentina or China, however, because he’s banned from those places. But mostly the world is his air-conditioning—he can just pick a setting and go.
What else can possibly be said about Bieber’s hair? He once claimed that he wanted to grow his hair down to his toes, which doesn’t seem terribly practical, but it also never seemed to be a serious threat. Just some good, goofy fun from a rare Canadian warbler. “It’s not that serious, guys,” his impish little smile seems to be saying in this debut photo, too. “It‘s a haircut.”
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