Fat Joe’s signature style includes his perfectly coiffed facial hair. So when the 53-year-old star started going gray, the “Lean Back” rapper leaned into the idea of bringing men’s haircare center stage. And with the help of his famous friends — and their impressive beards — the music legend is changing the culture of men’s grooming with Rewind It 10 and proving that hair coloring isn’t just for the ladies anymore.
“We created Rewind It 10 to not only shatter the stigma around men using hair and beard coloring products, but also raise the bar in the industry with a high-quality, Italian hair color product for men,” co-founders Jeff Aronson and Carolyn Aronson tell Us Weekly. “Boxes are already flying off the shelves and this launch is just the beginning. We look forward to redefining personal care and style for men around the world.”
Read more in Us Weekly’s Q&A below with Fat Joe:
Us Weekly: This is all about your new hair coloring product line Rewind It 10. The truth is men go through the same process as women when it comes to aging and grooming. Men want to look good too and rewind the clock a bit. Tell Us about how this all came to fruition.
Fat Joe: I’ve been a product of the product for a long time, and so something that gets to me is white hair. And so I was maybe about 29 [years old] the first time I seen white hair and I immediately bought a hair color [and] covered it up. And then the next spot was in my chest. And I live in Miami. I can’t get a suntan without the product. [It] never really satisfied me. And sometimes it looked fake. So my friends would clown me and be like, ‘Yo, you got a fake beard!’
Now that I put out commercials with white hair and color [and] some days I can come out with a little white [hair], it don’t bother me no more because the world knows already. I feel liberated.
Us: This is a long time in the making.
Joe: I’m telling you, and I can get all my friends and we can put ’em on different colors on the box! And we got [DJ] Khaled and Travis Kelce and Jencarlos Canela. And so it was an idea that we’ve been working on a for five years. And then it finally became real.
[Co-founder] Carolyn [Aronson] went over to Italy maybe 11 times to make sure the coloring was right.
[It’s] the Rolls Royce of hair coloring!
Us: You’re really normalizing men’s grooming.
Joe: Guys really do this more than we thought they do. A lot of black and brown men can’t use other products because they break out. Some of them even get rushed to the emergency room. We made the product ammonia free so that they could use it and never get bumps. So we were very, very conscious of everything — the smell, [with] the packaging we gave you double for your money than any other brand. So when you buy a box, it has double the product than any other brand. It’s really a 10.
We appreciate men like me. I got a wife, but I see women, they look at me, they say, ‘Damn, this guy takes care of himself! He smells good. He looks good.’ You appreciate that. You know what I mean? To see another man take care of himself and look good, smell good, look fresh and clean. And why would I want to look 53 when I could look 40?
So my wife and her girlfriends, they take care of themselves. So every day, like this morning before I woke up, the eyebrow lady was here. So one day it’s the lashes, one day is the nails, one day is the hair. Our women take care of themselves. And so why we as men can’t take care of ourselves and look younger and look better? And for many years, it’s been a stigma. Even me, when I went to Walgreens or Sally’s to buy a product, I snuck in and snuck out. I didn’t want nobody to see me. But now with all these guys on the box like Tyson Beckford it gives a guy a sense of pride.
Us: You’ve always been known for your famous facial hair. That’s your signature. And you have some really amazing brand ambassadors!
Joe: They’re all owners! So everybody on the box has a percentage of the company. So it isn’t just like we hired somebody to do it. First of all, they love the product and on top of that, they all have skin in the game.
For me, it’s all about being an entrepreneur. I’ve been an entrepreneur since I’ve been 14. And so with me it’s crazy because I think there’s a lot when I was young, I would look at businessmen that own businesses. It could be the bodega, it could be the bakery, it could be whatever. I’d be like, man, that’s what I want to be — a businessman. I want people to look at me like a businessman. And so it finally happened with owning sneaker stores, owning different businesses.
When you have a dream where you have an idea and it finally becomes reality, that’s the true entrepreneurial spirit. And the idea has come and I want everybody to go out there and get it. It’s going to make you feel better about yourself. It’s definitely going to make you look better. To me a fresh haircut has been the thing that makes me [the] happiest. I could be having the worst day, I could be whatever. At least I know I got a great beard going.
Us: Obviously, Travis Kelce right now.
Joe: Yeah! The hottest thing in the world!
Us: I feel like he might have the most famous beard in the world right now too.
Joe: He’s a champion too. He’s one of the greatest! But obviously the Swifties got his back! I’m [a] Swiftie!
Us: Are you really? I love it.
Joe: Travis Kelce’s the most talked-about person in the world. And “Wonderboy” Stephen [Thompson], he has a commercial on TV playing all day. Then Tyson Beckford, a supermodel, he’s on Dancing With the Stars. You can’t make this thing up. Everybody’s on fire right now. You can’t make up the energy behind these guys and just getting on fire. And [singer] Tank got the No. 1 song out now. We’re just blessed to have them.
Us: They all look great on the boxes. And Travis is the hottest thing right now. So it can only help the brand at the end of the day.
Joe: My God, are you kidding me? I mean he’s been the biggest. Never discredit him. He is a champion. He is tough. Him and his brother [Jason Kelce], they [are] tough guys. I like tough guys. I’m into guys that are tough and he’s always been tough. He won a championship twice, but it’s like you couldn’t make it up. The minute I had seen Taylor Swift with his mother [Donna Kelce] in the booth. I was like, ‘Hallelujah!’ There’s no way! We couldn’t pay for this energy!
Us: So true! And it obviously helps that Taylor is a fan of men with beards.
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Joe: Listen, listen. I want to thank Travis for believing in me and my vision, taking the chance with me. All these guys on the box. Jencarlos is, like, a handsome telenovela actor in the Spanish world. He got these deep blue eyes. The ladies love him. I’m so glad that everybody, [including influencer and actor] Kevin Creekman, he got this big-ass beard. That’s a job! When we did the photo shoot, I was like, man, this guy, he’s a rock star with the beard down here.
It’s moving like fire!
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