Olly Alexander Talks Hair Transformations... Above and Below The Belt — Interview - Allure Magazine

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Alexander: Shiori also dyes and cuts my hair. [Editor's note: on his head.]

Royal: I remember when we first started working together, wondering if you'd be up for doing red-red hair. And everybody around you wasn't sure.... Then on that first phone call you were like, "Yeah, totally." You were only brunette for an hour of me knowing you.

Alexander: The pop star powers are in the hair [now], so if it grows out or changes color, am I still a pop star? Do I have to dye it again? It's fun to wear different characters. Off-duty Olly wears the same stuff that I've had for years. When I'm going into Olly-mode, even before I walk out the door, I need to put on jewelry. Then when I go onstage, it's more jewelry, more outfit, and then my final form is the superhero with everything going on. Recently, I've been having my nails painted. I used to paint my nails and wear a lot of eyeliner when I was a teenager, so I'm coming back to a lot of the things I loved when I was first exploring my identity. I had to learn to do my own makeup on tour and I got really into just doing good-looking, natural, my-skin-is-just-amazing-and-glowy makeup. Then there was stuff I just never even thought about, like taking care of my eyebrows.

Royal: I love your brows. I love any time we bleach your brows.

Alexander: The first time I had it done, it was quite insane. They had to be bleached eight times for it to go white enough. And the next day, I was going on [morning] television and I showed up and they were still halfway between bleach and brown, so I did a backstage dye job just before I went onscreen. It was quite traumatizing.

Royal: It felt like it was a moment for [morning] television because there wasn’t really much [else] going on...

Alexander: Most dudes dress boring. Well, most people dress boring, I hate to say it. So it's always an opportunity for us to just try and get people talking about what I'm wearing, because why not? That's just fun. And I like to embody a bit of both energies, masculine and feminine, and give out something that feels a little bit intriguing.

Royal: I remember after one of our first red carpets you said that if you were younger and saw somebody wearing [what you were] it would make you feel okay, like you could relate. You've got to think about that little 14 year old who sees a picture of Olly wearing a big feather cape and it's a bit like, "Fuck you! I'm allowed to be who I want to be." — As told to Dianna Mazzone

A version of this story originally appeared in the December/January 2021/2022 issue of Allure. Learn how to subscribe here.

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