Timothée Chalamet is reinventing the wheel. Or, at least, spinning it back to the days when Kurt Cobain was your style icon. For on the campaign trail of The King, a style prince once known for out-of-this-world tailoring got a bit grungier. And that's because he's abandoned his hairbrush entirely.
Or at least that was the appearance. After what seems like a millennia of classic short-back-and-sides (a style now co-opted by Essex nightclubs, and the reality TV stars that fill them), Chalamet has cut the ribbon on a new season entirely: natural man, with his very natural hair.
This was not a 30-minutes-in-front-of-the-mirror-each-morning job. It channels neither Bradley Cooper's visit to the hairdressers of Brideshead, nor the gilded cage of a slick back. Instead, the 23-year-old eschewed the barber's chair entirely for something that looks a lot like bedhead (well, bedhead if you doze off in one of Frank Lloyd-Wright's Los Feliz mansions). The curls were big. The impact bigger still.
And he's not alone. Jake Gyllenhaal, a man who could once have been a silent partner in Dries Van Noten, has gone natural, too. His hair was longer. Even more unkempt. His wild style year has come to a close, the 38-year-old transforming into the kind of man who spends his summers with Simone de Beauvoir (and Simone de Beauvoir only) in a cabin somewhere in the Pyrenees.
Of course, looking like you've made minimal effort is an illusion, not the reality. Some work is needed. "I’ve definitely noticed that low-effort looks are very popular with some of my clients lately," says Naomi Richardson, of award-winning barbers Ruffians. "It's important to choose products that don't weigh down longer hair. Opt or something low-hold and smoothing, to help control the hair and enhance the body. Then, use a hairdryer on a high heat after washing, and go for low speed to allow it to dry in a more natural state. Use your fingers, rather than a brush, to encourage natural movement, and once dried, a pea size amount of product is enough."
We can't all be mountain men, though. First, you need a lid that lends itself to an au naturel aesthetic. If you've the poker-straight locks of a head girl, you're out. If your hair is so fine it feels more like fog than keratin, you're also out. But if you're blessed with a barnet thick enough to hold a comb unsupported, you too can leave your hair well alone. It's what Chalamet would've wanted.
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