Everything I do, I want to be A.J. Styles. When you see a guy come out with dry, long hair, I want you to be like, 'Hey, that reminds me of A.J. Styles.' That's what I want.
I was doing theatre when somebody noticed me and referred me to Raju Hirani. And Raju saw me on camera, and there, I was a heavy guy with long hair. But I got selected for the role of Joy in '3 Idiots.'
Like when I had long hair, you kind of got male attention from everything. But when you had short hair, it was a different kind of man that was attracted to you or I found coming up.
I absolutely think it is more acceptable for people who were assigned female at birth to dress in a typically gender non-conforming way. There was a time when people of all genders had long hair and anyone who wanted to wore jewelry - it was more a sign of status than a sign of femininity, per se.
It was great to get rid of the long hair. It's such a pain that, if you look at it, it's always wet when guys wrestle: you dump gallons of conditioner in it to keep it wet so you're not choking on it. You have all kinds of stuff in it, and just maintaining it is a lot of work.
I grew up in Dallas, with cowboys. I was the only guy in sixth grade with long hair and an earring. Let's just say I got a lot of, er, flak for being different.
I've got the long hair and kind of androgynous look. It's love-hate; it's sexy, but not sexy. So it's either you get it or you don't.