A man has a right to change his facial hair.
But as Backstreet Boys singer AJ McLean may be learning, his fans have a right to have seriously mixed opinions about it!
McLean, 43, posted a set of Instagram images Wednesday showing off his freshly shaven face (and serious tough-guy look), writing in the caption, "Had to be done! Don’t worry, y’all. It will return in a month."
A third photo shows him with the facial hair before the shave.
We know we won't see McLean's new look for the Backstreet Boys' Las Vegas residency return, which was to have kicked off in November but is now canceled.
McLean is usually seen bearded, but that wasn't the case back when the Backstreet Boys first launched. His band once shared a throwback pic from 1993 with all of them clean-shaven.
Fans are wondering about his new look. "TELL ME WHYY," asked one person in a nod to the lyric from the band's 1999 hit "I Want It That Way."
"If I see you on the streets, I wouldn't recognize you," wrote another.
However, fans also argued about whether it aged or de-aged him: One wrote "20 years older" while another wrote, "You look so young!"
In the end, though, this comment summed it up nicely: "We love u. Beardless or not!"
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