Music

Taylor Swift couldn't stop stroking the Weeknd's hair, says the Weeknd

by Jeremy Mersereau

The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye on weekdays) is known for a lot things: his crooning, sensual voice, songs with subject matter so sexual they make “Darling Nikki” sound like a PRMC anthem, and a towering palm tree of dreadlocks more matted than the average high school gym floor on Taekwondo day. The hairstyle is so alluring that even major stars take note, or, in the case of Taylor Swift, pet it non-stop until it gets really awkward.

In a new Rolling Stone interview, the Weeknd recounts meeting Swift for the first time at a Grammy party, where she proceeded to extol her love for Tesfaye’s music and style while caressing his hair. This is either a bad faux pas or a racist microaggression, depending on which websites you absorb your cultural talking points from, but mainly an extremely weird and patronizing thing to do.

“But the whole time she was talking, she was kind of, like, petting my hair?” said the Weeknd. “I think she was just drawn to it — she must have been a little gone off a few drinks. And of course I’m not going to be like, ‘Hey, can you stop?’ I mean, it felt good! But when she started petting my hair, that’s when I was like, ‘I definitely need a drink.'”

TL, DR: “Trust me, you wanna be high for this” – Tay-Tay while stroking the Weeknd’s hair. Along with some info about the Weeknd giving away songs he’d written for a certain Toronto megastar’s debut album, the interview contains more precious nuggets of hair info:

“I was like, ‘Fuck it — I’m gonna let my hair just be what it wants.’ I’ll probably cut it if it starts interfering with my sight. I can kind of see it right now. But if I cut it, I’d look like everyone else. And that’s just so boring to me.”

Anyone so enamoured, Swift-style, of the Weeknd that they scour the internet for tutorials like this one should take note of that last bit.