When Ashton Kutcher went clean-shaven after his break up with missus Demi Moore and when John Mayer chopped off his locks after a split with Katy Perry, New York-based sexologist and relationship expert Dr Logan Levkoff saw such decisions as a transition mechanism people use during a major change in life.
"Even when your heart is broken, you want to feel like you can pick up and be a new person. Dyeing your hair or doing something dramatic, in an idealised way, tricks us into thinking that we are."
Dr Levkoff explains further: "I love the idea that we can own wherever we are in a particular moment. It can be very empowering to change your look and start fresh."
Colourist and technical lead Zoe Wiepert of Bumble And Bumble salon in New York reveals that, despite the $280 to $300 price tag for a bleach-and-dye, many a non-celebrity male has come to her for transformative treatment especially at relationship endings: "Men have been colouring their hair way more in the past year, more than ever before."
Joy Swain of Thought Catalog, however, puts break up hair in this perspective: "Some of us cut our hair simply because it is our own, no matter how trivial you think it is to care about appearance. But it is something that belongs to us, and only us, especially if we gave every other physical part of ourselves to someone else. There is a special kind of beauty in this release. We reclaim ourselves again.
But it's important to know that we do not cut our hair because it symbolizes the birth of a new identity. Rather, it informs us that we will never lose ourselves despite what sadness and other pain we have experienced. Purple, ombre'd, bobbed or permed, we ARE the still that same person inside. No matter how many times we fry it until it's falling apart, or bleach it until its green and aren't recognizable in ANY of your recent photos, we are still full of just as much life as we had before we met whoever broke our heart."
So what transition colors have male stars been favouring after a big break up?
Blued Up Joe Jonas: After a particularly difficult break up with Gigi Hadid, Joe Jonas began wearing streaky blue, or more precisely - as his colourist Laura Estroff calls it - lapis lazuli blue, on his hair.
Silver Lining for Zayn Malik: Zayn Malik, who is now very heavily linked with Joe Jonas' ex Gigi Hadid, had been seen with silver hair. The former member of One Direction had then just broken up with fiancee, singer Perrie Edwards.
Colouring it Purple for Wiz Khalifa: Rapper Wiz Khalifa's divorce from Amber Rose produced a headful of purple dreadlocks, which he happily showed off on Instagram.
