KJ Apa is trying something new.
The Riverdale star, 25, appeared on Instagram Thursday to show off a brand new hairstyle. The actor sported a brown buzz cut and stubble — a far cry from the longer red hair and clean-shaven face he sports on his long-running CW show.
Apa captioned the photo, “Reset. One Fast Move,” a reference to his upcoming racing-centric film, in which he stars alongside Grey’s Anatomy alum Eric Dane.
Fans were surprised by the new style. One wrote in the comments section, “I literally didn’t recognize you at first,” while another added, “Ummm where’s Archie?”
Though Apa plays comic book character Archie Andrews, one of the most famous redheads in American pop culture, the star is naturally a brunette. In 2017, the New Zealand actor shared how he achieved the hair necessary to portray his Riverdale character.
“It’s pretty gnarly, man,” he told Vulture at the time. “I had to go to the salon every two weeks to get it dyed and bleached and stuff. So yeah, it’s not my favorite thing to do, but obviously I’ve got to do it because the roots keep coming up and my hair grows really fast. So, two weeks max I can go shooting, and then I have to get it dyed again. I’m sitting there for at least two-and-a-half hours, so I;m on my iPad and I read some scripts and stuff. I keep myself entertained.”
And it’s not just the hair on his head that needs dyeing: He also described the “painful” process of having his eyebrows touched up to match his locks.
“They ended up bleaching my eyebrows, and I had two holes — they burnt into my skin,” he added. “I was like, ‘Oh, my, we’ve got to sort this out.’ Luckily, I haven’t had that again, but yeah, it was pretty gnarly.”
Apa isn’t the only Riverdale star making moves now that the show is on hiatus before it begins filming its seventh and final season. Camila Mendes, who plays Veronica Lodge on the drama, recently shared an Instagram photo of her new, lighter summer hair.
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