The opening of Harry Styles‘s “Music For a Sushi Restaurant” music video finds a trio of fishermen loading up a merman Harry into a truck and delivering the haul to a commercial kitchen. But along with the whole squid thing, there was another aesthetic irregularity worthy of note: Styles’s full beard, which recalls that of Tom Hanks in the 2000 survival drama Cast Away.
As things get dicey, Styles sings a siren song to escape his fate and is soon granted a cleaning that includes a (not incredibly close) shave and dousings of glitter. The spa treatments continue — eye masks and moisturizers, shimmer, and gelled coiffure — as Styles transforms from potential entreé to performer, albeit briefly. Amid the short film’s gruesome-slash-glittery frames, Styles’s beard is a star, teaming with his tattoos to shift him into brawnier waters than his usual above-neck notes allow.
Behold, the power of the vibe switch: where a beard moment is almost buzzier than a scaled tail reveal.