Zayn Malik is now some sort of bearded wonder but during his One Direction days he was banned from growing any facial hair.
The former boyband star claims the group’s management stopped them from doing some very ordinary things in a bid to keep their teenage audience interested.
Singer Zayn is now free to grow as many hairs from any part of his body he chooses but when he was in 1D he says his identity was stifled.
He told Complex magazine: “There were certain restrictions in terms of the way that we could come outside of that young teen boy look. Mainly my beard, to be honest.
“I wasn’t allowed to keep it. Eventually, when I got older, I rebelled against it, and decided to keep it anyway.”
Zayn, who has now turned his hair almost every colour of the rainbow since going solo, was also not allowed to dye his hair when in the group.
He said: “That’s one of the things that is now quite cool, I get to keep my beard. I also wanted to dye my hair when I was in the band, but I wasn’t allowed to.”
And the fact he wasn’t allowed to be himself before his departure from the group last year was one of the driving forces behind him leaving.
He added: “It was about denying the authenticity of who I was, and what I enjoyed about music, and why I got into it.
“That was always there. It was one of the things that wasn’t going to go away, so I had to go away.”