Mayor De Blasio Turns Some Heads With New Sideburns
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- At some point in their lives, many men ask themselves whether they can pull off a look wearing sideburns.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reported, Mayor Bill de Blasio recently decided the answer is yes. But what do others New Yorkers think?
Elvis Presley rocked sideburns with no other facial hair back in the day, and so did Tom Jones. Mayor de Blasio is now turning some heads by adopting the retro look
"He has very long sideburns!" Lisa Harte of Midtown noted.
It is a bold fashion move that some say needs to be even bolder.
"It needs a little more shape," said Kalyn Lafaurie of Jamaica, Queens.
"It needs to be cleaned up a little," a man on the street added.
Some people do not like the look at all.
"I say no," said Emily Dunetz of the East Side, though her identical twin sister Caroline disagreed.
Another man quipped, "I think everything from the neck; from the shoulders up should be removed," before walking away.
But let's keep politics out of it. This is about the do's and don'ts of grooming.
For many men, the questions becomes sideburns or no sideburns. CBS2's Carlin went to Truman's Gentlemen's Groomers to get the answer – at least for himself.
"You can't do it. It's not going to happen. No," stylist Jim Flacche told Carlin. "You're too clean-cut."
But while Flacches did not think Carlin had the requisite amount of swagger to make sideburns work, he had a different assessment for the mayor.
"He's got a nice, good-sized head," Flacches said. "He can carry off a sideburn."
But of the mayor, Flacches also said: "It sort of thins down the side of his ear. I'm not sure why they're doing that. I'm going to guess he actually cut it off with the razor when he was shaving his face."
Indeed, sideburns that were all the rage in the days of Alexander Hamilton are back, in part thanks to the "Hamilton," the musical.
And it's not just old fashioned sideburns.
"Even like the little ponytails in the back," Flacche said. But Flacche did not think that would be a good idea for de Blasio.
CBS2's Carlin has reached out to the mayor to ask so him -- why the sideburns? Carlin has not heard back.
