Morgan Wallen has said goodbye to his signature mullet and mustache — but only for now.
“Right before everybody apparently started thinking I’m staying clean-shaven forever lol,” Wallen, 30, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, August 12, sharing a behind-the-scenes pic from his concert one night earlier.
At the start of Wallen’s Friday, August 11, show in Columbus, Ohio, fans noticed that his trademark look was no more.
“Before we get any further, I didn’t like my long hair anymore, so I shaved it off,” Wallen said during the show, per social media footage. “Back to business as usual, this next song’s called ‘One Thing at a Time!’”
Wallen sported a “Hard Living” tee with a pair of jeans to the show, along with an orange baseball cap to cover up his short locks.
Wallen’s fans immediately started speculating about the reason for the unexpected switch. “He must have lost a bet or SOMETHINNNN … right?” one social media user wrote via TikTok comment.
Others, however, gushed that he was “more attractive” without the mullet and ‘stache.
While the country singer is best known for his long locks, he took inspiration from his father Tommy Wallen’s own mane. “I went back home for Easter [two years ago] and I was looking through my parents’ photo albums and I got to when they got married and my dad had a mullet,” Morgan recalled during a November 2019 appearance on The Bobby Bones Show. “Me and my dad are very similar people, like looks-wise [and] acts-wise, everything. … They were 25 when they got married and I was 25 when I was looking at the photo.”
He added at the time: “I thought it looked good, so I figured I’d give it a shot!”
Wallen later retold the story to The Tennessean in January 2021, noting he chose to copy the hairstyle to “show some respect” to his dad and “do something a little bit different.” He continued: “It just caught on, man. That was it. That was ‘Game Over.’”
Wallen has been on the road touring for most of the year — with the exception of his medical leave. Moments before one of his concerts in April, he canceled the gig as a result of a “doctor-ordered vocal rest.” After injuring his vocal cords and being diagnosed with vocal fold trauma, he was forced to take a step back from performing for six weeks.
“The doc cleared me to talk and sing… we back,” he later wrote via Instagram on June 6.
