Fans praise ‘power of facial hair’ after Will Poulter debuted new look at Paris Fashion Week

Will Poulter has turned fans’ heads after sporting a new look at this year’s Paris Fashion Week.

The Bear star, 30, was seen at the Dior Homme Menswear Spring/Summer 2023 show in June with a moustache and a light smattering of facial hair framing his chin and jaw.

Although the actor debuting the look more than two weeks ago, fans have begun to sit up and take notice of his dapper appearance after sharing photographs on social media.

One tweet that has been viewed more than 8.7m times featuring a trio of photos of Poulter smiling at the camera was shared by a user who goes by the handle @fatfabfeminist.

She wrote: “HELLO?? WILL POULTER??? UR KIDDING???”

In another tweet, she said: “I cannot express the reaction I had to these pictures but oh my god.”

Others admired his “glowup”, with one person writing: “I’ve always thought he was really cute in an awkward way, I’m so glad he grew into his skin.”

“This man has had the most insane glow-up,” another said, while a third added: “This should confirm that growing a bear increases your attractiveness ten times more.”

In further praise of facial hair, another said: “Facial hair needs to be audited and governed by some centralised agency because the way this just changed my entire worldview on this man is giving me whiplash.”

One person wrote: “A light beard will always help frame and sharpen the face thus helping you look aesthetically pleasing and elevates the look from a boy to a MAN.

“You go Will Poulter! (Gone are the days that you’ll be compared to Sid from Toy Story haha)”

On social media, Poulter has sometimes been compared to the animated character of Sid in the Toy Story franchise. In May, he revealed that he was once even mistaken for Sid while at a urinal in LA, after a man turned to him and asked if he was in the Pixar animated film.

“I don’t want to be rude. I also appreciate there’s a meme going round of me – I dressed up as Sid from ‘Toy Story’ for anti-bullying week. So arguably I haven’t helped my case. But [Toy Story came out in] 1995. I was two. And they weren’t doing it through live action,” he said.

The Guardians of the Galaxy star wore a short-sleeved white-collared shirt with smart chinos and pale green clogs under a pale multi-coloured trench coat to the fashion show.

In terms of his looks, Poulter is also known for his arched eyebrows which are highly expressive. He opened up about his personal style in a 2022 interview with British GQ, in which he revealed he is a “massive sneakerhead”, referring to his love for trainers.

He said that when he was younger, he would emulate other people’s style without “really knowing what I was doing”, but now knows which labels “really suit my personality”.

Poulter named Frank Ocean, Robert Pattinson and Michaela Coel as celebrities whose sense of style he admires.

“I’d also absolutely love and can probably only dream of collaborating with a brand on a collection,” he added. “I’m actually a massive sneakerhead – I’ve had to tell myself I won’t spend money in Flight Club today – but a sneaker collaboration would be pretty cool to do.”