On the question of Jake's hair - 'It used to defy gravity, but now it's growing longer, and I can't get it to stick up'

Last night discussion turned, as it so often does, to one of our favourite subjects - Jake's hair. It's the holidays and I felt like some fun so I thought I'd take a closer look at this divisive issue. This was prompted by the rather surprising feature in last weekend's edition of the UK paper The Mail On Sunday, which suggested, tongue in cheek, complete with comparative photos, that David Beckham's new haircut was modelled on that of Jake Gyllenhaal's in Jarhead: 'The LA Galaxy star and noted hair chameleon has turned his already short locks into a severe military buzz cut that is seemingly inspired by Jake Gyllenhaal's crop in the 2005 war film Jarhead.'


This made me think two things: firstly, that looks like any other number of haircuts Beckham's had over the years and, secondly, I hadn't realise that Jake was becoming quite so mainstream in the UK media that he is included as comparison to one of the UK's most famous (for better or worse) stars and exports. Oh, there was a third thought: I hate the jarhead haircut.


Jake himself seems to have been taken aback by the Jarhead jarhead: 'I remember when I got my head shaved - and they shaved it right down - it was the most horrible haircut. It was pretty mundane. I filmed that. Then I filmed me honing the haircut because I wanted it to look perfect. I remember it just coming all off and there was a ceremony afterwards. I filmed that.' [With this video below, when you click on it, it may say Party Poker - ignore that and click on the play symbol at the bottom of the video screen and it goes to Jake.]

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Of course, the hairdo was paired up with a incredible body honed to physical perfection (compensation indeed for the top of Jake's head). And Jake appears to have found it liberating to have been inhabiting this whole new type of character and he felt empowered. 'I was at first, I think, I was a little terrified of myself without hair. And then I just felt bad ass. It just really empowers you. It was the beginning of a real sense of empowerment that Sam [Mendes] just fed and let grow, you know? He really gave us room and gave us all confidence in ourselves. That shaving of our hair was, in a way, a kind of similar process or parallel process to boot camp or the process of becoming a Marine.' Mind you, Jake grew his hair back fast enough - he can't have liked it that much. His parents didn't seem to care for it either: 'I shaved my head for Jarhead and both my parents were, like, f---! I came back from the boot camp and they were terrified.'


Jake has been burdened with some 'unusual' haircuts in his movie career (in Bubble Boy, for instance, Jimmy's hair was almost a character in its own right). Even though the jarhead had to be rebuzzed every two days, it must have been a bit of a relief not to have to go through hours of primping and preening: 'Being able to have a part where you don't have to do your hair or have wardrobe. [laughs] You didn't have to deal with any of that stuff. You're just basically you.'


When Jake was interviewed by Seventeen back in 2002, the first of the 17 questions went straight to the subject of Jake's hair to which Jake replied: 'It doesn't really stick up anymore. It used to defy gravity, but now it's growing longer, and I can't get it to stick up!' This is a fun interview (altough why anyone would admit to stealing their housekeeper's underwear and burning it is another matter). If you click on the picture you can also read about Jake's first kisses and how he was given a ring inscribed 'It's important to live, not only to exist.' Jake is also asked what his last dream was: 'Last night I dreamed that I was at a crazy party in Central Park. There was a mud bath and noone wanted to get in.'


It may be worth pointing out, that it's not just the hair on the top of Jake's head that interests us, and for that we have a lot to be grateful to Jarhead. 'Well the main difference is I started the movie with no hair on my body and then I seem to get hair all over my body.'



Sometimes, the hair disappears from more unusual places - well, unusual if you're not a cyclist - and then at other times it appears with too much abundance on other parts of the body.



And some of us are still divided on Rendition/Bafta Jake and the value or otherwise of gloup and product on Jake's hair. This has also interested other sites, including the Hairstyler. One thing's for sure, in some films, it's better than in others, but at least Jake has a myriad of other attributes to distract, not least of which, of course, is an obscene amount of talent.







Sometimes, even Jake has a bad hair day and then there is only one option.






Includes pictures from IHJ.