By The Editors of GQ for GQ.
Some men get their hair cut; other men are their haircut. From Dylan and James Dean to Harry Styles’s hairstyle, we humbly bow before their flowing locks.
1. John F. Kennedy Jr.
The Virile Offspring
Nearly 20 years ago, when I started working in magazines, John F. Kennedy Jr. — no, not John-John; nobody who knew him called him that — was the editor-in-chief of George, and I was an intern. There was no time to be starstruck, and besides, John had no patience for sycophants. But once in a while I’d catch an angle and see him almost the way a stranger did: I’d see that squared-off jawline, that leonine profile, and that shampoo-commercial hair. Kennedy hair. Heir hair. Monumental in volume and wave, it looked like it should have a constellation named for it. I remember that John loved hats, and looking back I wonder if he wore them to appear more like the rest of us — to hide that beautiful mane. There were baseball caps, beanies, even berets. He wore them out in the city, riding his bike or walking his dog. I don’t know if they provided him any anonymity, really. What could?—Catherine Gundersen
2. Michael Jordan
The Mr. Clean
Every man under 50 who is purposely bald has been touched by the long arm of Michael Jordan. Rather than attempt to pass off his filmy shadow of vellus as real hair, Jordan accepted Mother Nature’s will — then he shoved it back in her face, shaving his head clean. Suddenly he looked even more athletic. Veins rippled backward when he strained. The curves of his smooth dome mirrored those of his biceps. The effect was greatest when he sweated, which made him look as if he had been carved from marble and polished to a high sheen. Gatorade executives beheld that glistening head an saw valuable advertising space; they colored Jordan’s perspiration fluorescent orange and turned it into a marketing campaign. With the swipe of a razor, Jordan not only created an iconic silhouette for himself; he shaved the way for generations of premature baldies.—Caity Weaver
3. Shia Labeouf Is a Flat Circle
One man’s infinite hair odyssey from fame to infamy to fame to…
4. Sly Stone
The Radical Natural
If you wanted to politicize your hair in the 1970s, you grew it into long, straight, face-framing curtains that spilled down your shoulders and back. Unless you were a black guy — then the Marcia Brady look was tough to pull off. So you did what Sly Stone did: Instead of growing down, you grew wide, in every direction, like the rays of the sun, allowing the kinks and curls of your natural hair to dictate its shape, gloriously unrestrained. Sly was already a musical prodigy when he made his first foray into the business, as a clean-cut teenager singing doo-wop. But it wasn’t until he grew out his hair into a perpetual black halo that he transformed into a pioneer of psychedelic soul.—C.W.
5. John Travolta Is Also a Flat Circle
Another man’s infinite hair odyssey from fame to infamy to fame to…
6. & 7. Bob Marley & The Weeknd
The Past and Future Dreads
All hair is faith — you comb it, shave it, style it, point it in a direction, and pray that others will believe as you do. But dreadlocks are different, more literal. The Bible says, “He shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.” So there’s Bob Marley — still young, newly returned from America and the Chrysler plant in which he worked, back in Jamaica, devoting himself to reggae and Rastafarianism. He let the locks of the hair of his head grow. He was saying: I am a believer. He was saying: Look at God.
Then there’s The Weeknd, still young, coming out of anonymity and the Toronto shadows, finally ready to put a face to his name, wearing his hair like a crown made from coral. “I want to be remembered as iconic and different,” he told Rolling Stone last year. “So I was like, ‘Fuck it — I’m gonna let my hair just be what it wants.’ ” This, too, was an act of faith, if a more secular one. He was saying: Look at me.—Zach Baron
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