We Need A Hero x Shentonista: Look Of A Hero—Rolling With The Punches

In this series for We Need A Hero, we feature some of our favourite men sporting four of 2018’s upcoming hair trends.

A couple of weeks after we photographed Jason for this campaign, we met him again, this time with a broken ring finger. It’s nothing too out of the blue for him though—as a passionate skateboarder, he’s used to more than the usual share of cuts, bruises, and broken bones. It seems like this kind of physical battering has somewhat prepared him for the hard knocks in life as well, and Jason’s not one to shy away from opportunity, changing his career path entirely, or starting something from scratch. With his devil-may-care attitude and wry humour, Jason’s set on growing in his own way, in his own time.

Shentonista (S): Do you think it’s important to be well-groomed, and why?
Jason (J): I think yes, to a certain extent, but don’t be overly obsessed with it. I think everybody needs to take some pride in themselves, so to be well-groomed is, in some sense, to love yourself enough to be presentable. But you shouldn’t be overly obsessed because you become vain. You just need to be presentable in a very basic way: by taking care of and grooming yourself.

S: What are your usual grooming habits?
J: Trimming my nose hair (laughs) and my beard. When it comes to my hair, it depends on what stage my hair is at. If it’s too long I’d usually shove it down under a cap. If it’s well cut, like today, then it’s easy to style. Sometimes I wake up with very bad ‘bed head’, then of course I’d need to style it again.

S: What do you think is the most important feature/aspect to take care of to make a good first impression?
J: I think it doesn’t matter what you really look like, but I think—this might sound a bit weird—it’s the energy of the person. You have to come into the room and own the room, and that makes a big difference. I think that’s a very important aspect of what makes a person.

S: Anyone that you look up to for style inspiration?
J: Not really. But I look at eras—I like the skateboarding look of the ’80’s, and some graphics, and get inspiration from that. But of course I know that my body type won’t suit overly baggy clothes!

S: Tell us about a haircut/style you’ve regretted.
J: I dyed my hair light brown a couple of years back, a bit of an ah beng look. I’ve stuck to black since then, not weird funky colours.

S: What’s a look that you’ve always wanted to try?
J: I’ve always wanted a mini-afro. I’ve always thought it was cool. But I don’t know if my wife would agree.

S: Can you tell us a bit more about what you do for work? What does a typical week at work entail?
J: I strut in, look pretty, make a coffee, bark some orders around, pretend to check emails, then take an afternoon nap, and I go home. (laughs) No lah, in reality, I do client servicing and project management. I do quite a bit of running around, a mishmash of stuff, including the day-to-day running of things. I facilitate the creative processes, what the client wants, and what the boss needs.

S: What’s one thing you’ve learnt from your years of work?
J: Always try to treat people the way you would like others to treat you.

S: What are some of the most memorable projects that you’ve worked on?
J: Very, very long ago I did this project for Nokia. It was called ‘Defend Your Turf’. It was the stage where street soccer was quite ‘in’ but we did it differently by inviting a team from Brazil to come around the region and challenge all the local boys. We had street soccer competitions in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and more to find the top team to challenge the Brazilians, whom we labelled as the ‘bad boys’ coming. We made t-shirts, ran campaigns, and won some awards. I think that was quite special because it was a big thing I worked on when I was young.

S: You also run some projects on the side—skate photography, and Mystic Vintage, a spectacles and sunglasses brand you founded with your friends. How did you come to be involved in these?
J: Skate photography was a natural progression. I like cameras—I’m a bit geeky, I like the equipment, but I don’t necessarily have the skill. I come from a design background and have a lifelong passion for skateboarding, so both things kind of got married together. I wouldn’t say skate photography is a very serious thing, sometimes I just do it for fun. Mystic Vintage was also a passion. Being myopic since I was 12 or 13 years old, I’ve always worn spectacles and about eight years ago, when I spoke to my now-business partners, we all had the same passion for vintage specs and we decided we could make a business out of that. As we grew the business, we realised we needed to design our own frames because that would make us unique.

S: Do you play a big part in designing the frames?
J: Yeah, me and my other partner Alvin (from PHUNK Studio) design the frames. Our design process is very ad hoc, we just throw ideas about—maybe he kickstarts something and I just adjust it, or we think about themes and then we work around those. A key thing about Mystic Vintage is that it’s very pop-culture influenced and very thematic. Every release we have is based on certain things. The most recent one, Stargaze, is about dreams, and songs about dreams. The campaign that follows will also take on the look. Another recurring thing about our frames is that there’s always a little inscription at the temple, inside the little legs. The Magic series was based on a David Bowie movie called Labyrinth. On a purple pair that I have it actually says “You have no power over me”, which was a quote from Bowie in the movie.

S: What’s your dream project to work on?
J: If it were an interior job, I think it would be quite interesting to work on something religious, because of the fact that I’m not religious myself. If I could design a mosque, church, or temple, I think that would be a challenge that I’d like to take on. If it were a skate project I think it’d be fantastic to be able to own an indoor skate park with a bar next to it. (laughs)

S: What’s the best part about your job?
J: I think having control of your time is always the best part of running your own show, but the downside is that you’re working all the time and the stress level is higher than the days where I was just employed. The other best part is really being there for people, because you know you’re responsible for them, as the boss.

S: If someone were to offer you an unlimited supply of one thing, what would you ask for?
J: How about an endless supply of Sundays? Sundays are my little ‘half-days’ to myself. I get up really early, go all the way to the East Coast and skate for half a day, then after that I come back, have lunch with my wife, and spend the rest of the day together. It’s nice because it’s a balanced day —we’re not together the whole day, and we both get some of our own time.

S: Naughtiest thing I’ve done:
J: Cross the road when the light was red. (laughs) I threw a cigarette butt on the floor once. That was so naughty! I got caught.

Find out how to create Jason’s look here.
Jason wears coat from HUGO, which will be launched next year.