Country singer Sam Hunt shocked fans as he showed off a completely new look this week. E! News reports that the star, who’s best known for his hits including “Body Like a Back Road” and “Take Your Time,” looked almost completely unrecognizable while stepping out at the ACM Honors ceremony on August 22.
Sam, who received the Gene Weed Milestone Award at the ceremony, walked the red carpet with a completely shaven head and a shaved beard as he stepped out in a muted grey suit and open white shirt.
The big change got some mixed reactions on social media, where fans weren’t quite so sure what to think after seeing Hunt’s new look.
“Who allowed this and why?” one Twitter user said after seeing him looking pretty different, while another tweeted, “Ah!!!! No no no.”
But while some weren’t exactly feeling Sam’s big change, others were a little more complimentary of the singer going clean-shaven for the summer.
“I think he looks better. I like it,” one fan responded on Twitter after seeing the latest photos of the singer. A second noted that they thought he was “sexy bald Sam Hunt now” after seeing the pictures.
But while the singer hasn’t revealed what inspired his decision to take a razor to his hair and beard, this actually isn’t the first time that Sam has gone hair-free on his head since making it big with his unique country vibe.
Speaking to Taste of Country about his facial hair back in 2015, Hunt revealed that he first shaved off his beard after heading home for his brother’s wedding and finding that his grandmother wasn’t the biggest fan of his facial hair.
“I went home for my younger brother’s wedding and caught a little flack from my grandmother,” Hunt told the site after first going sans beard three years ago.
“In the sweetest grandmother kind of way,” he then continued, “she let me know that she didn’t like the beard at all.”
Sam also told the site that going cleanly shaven was part of his overhaul as he headed back into the studio to work on new music, signifying a new chapter in his life as he got back to work on new music which will serve as a follow up to his 2014 multi-platinum album, Montevallo.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjuoBFIDi-H/?hl=en&taken-by=samhuntmusic
“When we got off the road, I wanted to start a new chapter. I was about to get in the studio to write,” he explained at the time, adding, “I told myself I was gonna start working out again. It was kind of a metaphor for a new chapter in my life.”
But while his scruff may have been gone for a while a few years ago, the country star later told Entertainment Tonight that he then grew his beard back out because his wife Hannah Lee Fowler, who he married in 2017, is a fan of his more rugged facial hair look.
“I grew it out, and she said she liked it,” Sam told the outlet back in October, adding that “her opinion matters most, so I kept it.”
“It gets cold in Nashville, so I like to have a beard in the winter,” he then joked.
