Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence’s Hair Is Almost Better Than His National Championship

The highlights from Monday’s College Football championship between Alabama and Clemson are incredible. It’s mind-boggling to even imagine the amount of work and conditioning that went into making some of those moments possible. The sort of feats that made us, downing a third beer on the couch, feel deeply self-conscious. Mind you, we’re not even talking about the events that led to the 24-carat trophy handed out to Clemson at the end of the night. No, we’re talking about the hair belonging to Clemson’s freshman quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Lawrence’s long layered blond tresses are the stuff of shampoo brand executives’ dreams. He is Fabio if Fabio could drop a 60-yard dime against college football’s most perennially feared defense. Lawrence is the monster in Bird Box, but if instead of making you want to slide into a burning car, the monster immediately made you want to hurl all the 3-in-1 shampoo, conditioner, and body washes you own into the nearest trash receptacle. The national champion has great hair, is what we’re saying.

It helps that the dude showed up before the game in an outfit as well considered as his model-grade hair. Floral-printed oxfords set the foundation for a more muted outfit made up of a sleek black blazer and grey chinos. It occured to me when I saw Lawrence’s outfit how prevalent menswear—and not just men’s clothing, but the time guys are spending thinking and talking about it—is now.

Take this week. Male celebs wore seriously advanced outfits on the Golden Globes red carpet Sunday night, and on Monday, a freshman walked into the stadium with model-grade hair and a fit to match. And it’s not just Lawrence, either—his teammate Cade Stewart, an offensive lineman, permanently rocks a mullet. And maybe a mullet isn’t everyone’s idea of a great look, but Stewart is clearly making an aesthetic choice rather than just putting himself at the mercy of whoever is renting out a chair at his local Sport Clips.

The mullet is evidence of how things can swing wildly from good to bad now that everyone is participating in the cultivation of their own unique look. Because if Lawrence’s hair is at one end of the spectrum, then the outfit Lil Wayne wore to perform with Imagine Dragons during halftime might be at the opposite point.

Wayne wore Uggs, a Gucci coat, a dangling white-and-black-striped scarf, what appeared to be patent leather pink shorts over black sweats, large glittery sunglasses, and a floppy wide-brimmed hat. The internet, naturally, compared Weezy to the Hamburglar. Style is an effective branding tool—but it goes both ways.

The takeaway, though, is that men’s fashion moments—hilarious and glorious alike—are popping up in the least expected places, like the College Football National Championship. Now, we can only hope that Outside the Lines assigns its investigative reporters to figure out what goes into Lawrence’s hair routine.

Watch:

GQ Editors on Their Menswear Addictions