'Caveman' who refused to shave for 12 years looks like a model after clean-cut makeover

vt-author-image

By VT

Article saved!Article saved!

Sometimes it can be hard to truly see how you look to other people. I remember spending my teenage years brushing off family members and other adults who told me my hair was way too long. I told them I liked it that way and it seemed like it was a lot cooler than having short hair like some of the other boys at my school, so I kept it right up until I was 17.

Looking back, however, it's very clear that me and all my male friends looked dumb as hell and definitely warranted concerned questions from those mature enough to see how bad it looked. It was only once I got it cut a lot shorter that I noticed how much better it looked.

The same could be said for beards, which are definitely 'in' right now. Maybe all us dudes who refuse to stay clean-shaven will regret it later, but it seems like it's sticking around for a while. And as many of you will know, men can get pretty attached to their beards - but likely not as much as this man was.

Josh completely stopped cutting his hair and shaving his beard after his military career ended 12 years ago, leaving her looking quite a bit different.

You can watch the full segment on Oprah's show below:

On top of this, the 38-year-old veteran also began wearing the same outfit nearly every day: a white t-shirt, blue jeans and work boots.

His girlfriend Heidi missed how he used to look. She'd beg him to trim, noting that he looked like a "caveman", but he would always refuse. The look wasn't a huge issue for her, but she did admit she "just want him to be a little less... hairy".

Yet after years of this, she eventually got through - but it took a little help from none other than Oprah herself.

In this video from The Oprah Winfrey Show, he finally agrees to the makeover. Speaking to beauty and style experts, Josh said, "I dare you to make me look better than I do right now."

Tim Gunn from Project Runway took on the challenge, and while he needed a lot of reassurance during the makeover, they eventually pulled it off.

Gunn claimed that he wanted to enhance his personality rather than completely overhaul the look, so trimmed the beard down to a neater length, cut his hair down and gave him some designer clothing. He was given a tailored leather jacket, a pair of stylish jeans, a red sweater, a smart dress shirt, and this time some far more stylish boots.

Not all TV makeovers go well. This woman FAINTED after stylists cut 12-inches of hair off:

“It’s all about reflecting who they are, their core, making them better, enhancing them,” Gunn said, and Josh added, "I feel like a new man."

When greeted with the new look, his partner Heidi said:

“He looks great, and this is exactly what I’ve been trying to get him to do. He still has beard and [facial] hair, but he looks great. I can’t get over it. Thank you, Tim!”

While he definitely looks younger and smarter this way, there's something about his old look that works too. Do you think he looked better before or after?