Take That star Howard Donald has admitted the real reason he grew dreadlocks during the boy band's heyday - he was terrified of going bald.
Howard was often considered the ‘edgy’ one in the group due to his infamous hair 'do.
However, the singer has admitted he only rocked the signature look because he feared losing his hair when he got older.
The singer made the bizarre confession on the latest episode of Paul O’Grady’s Saturday Night Line Up, where he was joined by Dame Arlene Phillips, Omid Djalili and Sally Lindsay.
The new entertainment show, hosted by comedian Paul O'Grady, sees celebrities pit themselves against each other to find out what the British public really thinks of them.
When the guests were asked who was most likely to have a mid-life crisis, Howard joked he had an early one in his 20s, which involved his signature dreadlock look.
He revealed: "When I first started in Take That, from that moment on I thought, ‘I really don’t want to go bald’.
"So that’s one of the reasons I got my dreadlocks. I just kept growing it. And I’ve done alright, I’m 53 and I still haven’t lost my hair, so it’s all good.
"I got Vidal Sassoon to cut them [the dreadlocks] off and I’ve still got them to this day in a Vidal Sassoon bag.
"I used to get the p*** taken off me all of the time by Gary (Barlow) about how smelly my hair was, to the point that when I stayed at his house, he actually put a plastic cover over his pillow, on the bed that I was staying on!"
The star didn’t explain why he believed that sprouting dreadlocks prevented the onset of male pattern balding or whether he went for the chop after discovering that locs can simply fall off.
But the hairstyle had undeniably gained him an army of young admirers.
Howard had the typical boy-next-door looks when he first started with the hit 90s boy band alongside band members Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Robbie Williams.
When he decided to ditch the cookie-cutter image for dreads, fans went into a frenzy and believed he was simply coming into his own and rebelling, which gave him a bad boy edge.
At many of the band's gigs, fans would even rock dreadlock wigs in support of their idol.
However, Howard, now a married father-of-four, previously admitted that despite that he regretted the style choice.
In a March 2020 tweet alongside an old picture of himself with dreads with bandmates Mark and Jason, he wrote: “Best thing about my hair was that I cut it all off! #thosewerethedays'."
And in a tweet to Gary back in 2013, he stated: "I look back and hate my dreadlocks. I still have them in a Vidal Sassoon bag. Might sell them for £10 each for charity."
The new episode of Paul O’Grady’s Saturday Night Line Up airs September 24th at 9.35 pm on ITV.
