The Weeknd enjoys anonymity thanks to new haircut

The Weeknd doesn't get recognized as much since he chopped off his trademark dreadlocks.

The Can't Feel My Face singer shocked fans when he revealed he had got rid of his Jean-Michel Basquiat-inspired dreadlocks ahead of the release of Starboy, the lead single from his upcoming album of the same name, in September (16).

He previously said he changed his hairstyle because it ended up becoming a signature and the image no longer felt right.

The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, has now revealed in an interview with Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show on Apple Music, which airs in full on Friday (25Nov16), that the best benefit has been his new ability to go incognito.

"You don't even realize how much of a pain in the a*s it was until you cut it," he said. "The best part about all of it is, I get to wear f**king hats again. Just wear a f**king cap, walk into a restaurant, nobody knows it's you. It's the greatest feeling."

He also called chopping the dreadlocks off "the greatest feeling of all time", as not only does he feel lighter and perform better, but he can also sleep easier at night without the hair on the side of his face.

However, the discarded hair still has sentimental value to the singer because he didn't throw it away - it is being kept in a safe.

He previously told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month (Nov16) nobody wanted him to have such a radical makeover, but their comments simply encouraged him to do it.

"I told everybody I was getting rid of it, and everybody - literally, unanimously - they were like, 'No, don't do it! That's your whole thing, that's you,'" he recalled. "And the way they said that, I was like, 'Oh, I'm definitely cutting it now.'"