Whoa. In a new interview, Zayn Malik drops a major bombshell about the restrictions forced on him and the guys in One Direction: they weren’t allowed to grow beards!

Zayn Malik, 23, is opening up about what life was like as part of a world-dominating boy band, and unfortunately it wasn’t all roses. Inside his revealing new cover story for Complex magazine, Zayn admits that one of the hardest parts about being in One Direction was that he wasn’t allowed to be himself, especially when it came down to something as trivial as his facial hair.

Did you know that One Direction had some very strict rules about their appearance? Well, they did… and for the first time, Zayn is really opening up about some of the things he and the guys were not allowed to do while a part of the group. One of those things? Believe it or not, Zayn says they weren’t allowed to have beards.

When asked what sort of restrictions he faced in 1D, Zayn said: “Mainly my beard, honestly. I wasn’t allowed to keep it. Eventually, when I got older, I rebelled against it, and decided to keep it anyway. That was just because I looked older than the rest of them. That’s one of the things that is now quite cool. I get to keep my beard. I also wanted to dye my hair when I was in the band, but I wasn’t allowed to.”

Wow. That’s kind of crazy, isn’t it? Especially because Zayn looks so incredibly hot with a beard… and his fellow 1D-er, Liam Payne, always seems to have a little scruff going on. Hmm.

As the interview continues, Zayn also reveals that he unintentionally became the “mysterious” one solely because the other guys had much more outgoing personalities than he did. He calls being mysterious a “stigma,” but also explains that he never felt like he had anything to say because he didn’t have anything to do with their creative process.