These are the things Zayn Malik could not do in One Direction

Zayn Malik left One Direction a year ago and is opening up about the band’s strict rules put in place to “maintain their young teen boy look”.

The Pillow Talk singer, who is about to release his debut solo album, revealed the restrictions placed on him when he was in the group.

“There were certain restrictions in terms of the way that we could come outside of that ‘young teen boy’ look.

“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,” Zayn told Complex magazine.

“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.”


Zayn, 23, said that not being able to be “authentic” was part of the reason he left.

He said: “It was about denying the authenticity of who I was, and what I enjoyed about music, and why I got into it.

“That was always there. It was one of the things that wasn’t going to go away, so I had to go away.”



Zayn has since dropped a raunchy video from his smash hit Pillow Talk, featuring girlfriend Gigi Hadid.

He said that making the video did not take much rehearsing.

“We were just messing around. It wasn’t even, like, part of the shoot. You know when they say, ‘action?’ They didn’t do that. It was just rolling.”

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