UrbanUpdate

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Photograph by Matt Martin

"I think the more successful you are, the bigger your hair gets." Justin Hawkins, lead singer of the British rock band The Darkness, would know. The group took off on the strength of their 2003 single, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love," and their throwback jumpsuits-and-long-locks act was part of the appeal. They’ve since had their ups and downs—’70s-style rock excess, it turns out, doesn’t play as well in the Aughts—so I wonder if Hawkins means that big hair signifies a bigger ego. But he’s just talking about temperature: "You know, you’re playing in bigger places, so it’s easier to manage the heat. When we played in sweaty little clubs, there’s really nothing you can do." Now, though, Hawkins’ hair is shorter, looping down to his temples, and paired with a Dali-style curled mustache. It begs the question: With their new album Last of Our Kind due in June, what does the chop mean for the band? Hawkins (along with his brother Dan, the band’s guitarist and producer) spoke to GQ about rock-god grooming.

GQ: Justin, you’ve had long hair forever—when did you cut it?

Justin: It was last year, actually. We were writing the album. It was early on in the year, and I was just really frustrated having long hair. I thought, I didn’t need to have it—I could try it short, and then I’ve got time to grow it if it’s a disaster.

And how do you like it?

Justin: It’s never short enough for me now. It never used to be long enough for me, and now it’s never short enough.

What’s the feeling of it not being long enough? Like, as a prop, it doesn’t do enough?

Justin: I always used to look at old pictures of us, and we had really long hair. Do you remember? It was kind of surprising. It was the first thing you noticed. How long was my hair then?

Dan: Way down. Really long.

Justin: It never seemed to grow quickly enough. When you’re young, and you have long hair, it’s just really long hair. And then you get to a certain point where you start to look after it, and then people will tell you that you have to cut a little bit off so it grows quicker. And it just doesn’t. It just has more cut off. And I think I just got really annoyed with it.

What kind of hair do you like to have onstage?

Dan: The trouble with hair is, like, when you start a gig...

Justin: Everything has to be as big and as shiny as possible.

Dan: Yeah. You have to go in as big as you can, because halfway through a gig, when you’re completely covered in sweat because you’ve been head-banging, you’re just gonna look like a drowned rat anyway, so you may as well try and go for it for the first three or four songs and hope that it holds up.

Justin: Or have your guitar tech blow dry it a bit in between songs.

Dan: When artists go to the back of the stage, change the guitar, or do that thing that they do with the towel, it’s not to get sweat off their face. They’re secretly putting their fingers through it, and they’re trying to make their hair big, so you can’t see the receding bits and stuff.

Whether it’s long or short, how do you take care of it when you’re out touring, or, you know, living out of a suitcase on a bus?

Justin: Well, I’ve done tours before where I’m away for weeks, and all I’ve packed is a lucky brass cat. And then you’re at the mercy of whatever’s in the hotel you’re staying in. I don’t smell, ever. I mean, I smelt yesterday. I was pungent. Odorous.

Long flight?

Justin: Yeah, a long flight, and a day of press, and I had slept in my clothes. So obviously...it’s not like because you hadn’t done enough farts that day or something. But I don’t really pack very much. I’m probably not the best person to ask.

And then, Dan, what’s your regimen?

Dan: Well, I can never brush my hair. If I brush my hair, it’s a fucking disaster. It goes really frizzy and really big, and it just grows. If I was to blow-dry my hair and brush it—I mean, you’ve never seen anything like it. It’s really weird. But I can’t go a day without washing my hair. I just don’t feel right. I don’t feel like I’m working out properly until I’ve washed my hair.

And while you guys were both long-haired, did fans ever do anything strange with it? I feel like that’s the groupie trope, someone tries to snip a lock of your hair or whatever. Did you ever have to fend off admirers with scissors?

Justin: No, not snippers. But I think when people get comfortable with you, it’s like, "Oh, can I plait this?" I think there is a certain fascination with a man’s hair.

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Dan: But the thing is, as far as clutching at anything, they’re more likely to go for the penis than the hair. I mean, it’s just a height thing, because we’re onstage and they’re gonna get to the lower regions first, aren’t they?

Justin: When they’re clambering up. A lot of pubic hair.

You guys play music and have a look and vibe that’s indebted to the ’70s and the ’80s...

Justin: The golden era.

Yeah, exactly. But now, not as many bands dress like that. If you’re in Led Zeppelin and you’re walking around in the 70s, you’re gonna see a lot of other people who are dressed like you—

Justin: But I heard something about Robert Plant. [To Dan:] You remember that guy in the shop? And he said that Robert Plant used to shop at Miss Selfridge’s, which is like the sort of budget line of clothing for younger women. Which makes perfect sense, when you look at what he was wearing: shirts that you can’t close because they’re little girls’ blouses, basically.

Dan: I think we might be complaining about how much better women’s clothes were than men’s at the time.

Justin: Yeah, they used to be better. I think it’s changing now.

Dan: We used to wear a lot more women’s clothing, didn’t we? We used to go out vintage clothes shopping in Camden and it wouldn’t matter to us whether it was a boy or a girl. Just: Is it shiny enough?

After 15 years of doing The Darkness, do you have to modulate your pace? How are you different now than you were when you started?

Dan: Less hungover, I think is the simple answer, really.

Justin: Marginally less hungover.

Dan: Marginally.

Justin, what’s the inspiration behind your mustache?

Justin: I did it for Movember, in 2009, I think it was. It’s a six-year-old mustache. Wow.

Dan: Do you ever cut it? Do you ever have to?

Justin: I do trim it, yeah. I do now. Because it would be a Mr. Miyagi. Which I quite like, that look, but I need white hair to really sell that, I think. And I’ve only got two of those. They’re not in the mustache, sadly. ...They’re not pubes either. They’re on my chin.

Dan: I tried to grow a ’tache once.

Justin: There were probably seven hairs...

Dan: It was starting to get there, and then I just opened the door one day and it just blew off.

Justin, do you use wax?

Justin: Yeah. There was a little period when a lot of people kept asking me to endorse this wax or that wax. Because there’s a lot of stuff on the market. It’s a surprisingly diverse world. It’s the only thing that I do that qualifies as grooming, to be honest. I spend much more time on that than I do anything else in that world, you know. But I found there’s three products I really like, and I’m really happy to endorse them.

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Let’s hear it.

Justin: Because the style of mustache I have is called a Hungarian, and you need a certain type of viscosity in the wax to make it work, and there’s this stuff called Stern Hungarian Bartwichse, which I’m told means "beard sperm" or something like that. You know what I mean? It’s a weird translation. [Ed. note: As best as we can tell, it’s German for, well, "mustache wax."]

Dan: You sure that wasn’t in the ingredients? You might want to double-check that.

Justin: Stern Hungarian beard sperm. Bartwichse. It smells a bit like egg, but I don’t think it can be. That soon evaporates, and it’s clear and it’s odorless. But as soon as you put it in, it actually goes into the exact kind of swoop that you want for the Hungarian. A tighter curl, I’m told, is called a Kensington or something like that. If you’re gonna do that, you need a firmer lacquer, and I would recommend Brother’s Love Clear Lacquer. But the problem with that is that it’s quite fragrant and it smells a bit cologne-y. So you end up smelling like...

And it’s right beneath your nose, so if you don’t like it...

Justin: It’s strictly for the tips, and away from the nostrils and the drinking area. But there’s another one that gives a good sweep, which is also by Brother’s Love, and it’s the hazelnut one. It has a completely different finish. So this morning, for example, I used the Brother’s Love hazelnut to achieve the sweep, and I put a topcoat of the clear lacquer.

What about your beard?

Justin: Sometimes I have a beard, sometimes I don’t, and I’m not very good at maintaining it. I’ve got an agreement with my life coach and guru that I don’t touch it from now on. I shave it at the top, and whatever shape it is, when I have a haircut, he cuts that, too.

And what is that supposed to represent?

Justin: It’s just faith, you know? I trust him with the top of my head and the bottom of my face, and the rest of it’s my responsibility, I think. It’s fair enough. His name’s Vlad, by the way.

Vlad the life guru-slash-barber.

Justin: Barber guru, yeah.

I’m wondering about, like, the everyday grooming or everyday style versus when you’re onstage. Is one more involved?

Justin: I’m truly obsessed by clothes. I just buy clothes all the time. And I don’t spend money on anything else. Not my daughter. Certainly not my accommodations or car. Nothing like that. It’s all clothes. And I think it’s tax-deductible. I’m hoping it is.

Sam Schube is the GQ Sports director. He began working at GQ in 2014 as an editorial assistant, and in the years since has assigned and edited features and profiles, written stories about subjects ranging from Johnny Knoxville to professional golf's existential crisis, and worked on all manner of magazine... Read moreGQ Sports DirectorXInstagramRelated Stories for GQGroomingHair