Can Yaman has shaved off the beard that made him famous: playing a neat lawyer in the comedy Bro calls for a new face

Can Yaman no longer has a beard. The Turkish actor, who for years wore his thick beard as a trademark, has appeared clean-shaven, with a sharper jawline and shorter hair with subtle blond highlights. The long, wild mane has been replaced by a neat, polished look.

The reason is not a whim but a script. In the new comedy series Bro he plays Riccardo, a tidy, formal lawyer - a character a pirate beard simply does not suit. On Instagram, where almost two million people follow him, he posted three photos and a message saying Bro had made him do things he had never done before. "Some of them will grow back," he added, announcing that the new project is coming soon.

Many in the Balkans remember him precisely for the beard. As Can Divit in the series Erkenci Kuş (Early Bird) - an adventurer-photographer with a thick beard, a man bun and tattoos - he became world-famous, and Turkish series have long been part of the evening TV schedule here too.

After that the beard changed with every role. In Bay Yanlış (Mr. Wrong), as a restaurant owner, he wore a short, neat beard - and had to shave it temporarily when he went off to compulsory military service. In the Italian Viola come il mare, as a police inspector, he had a few days' stubble. In El Turco (2025) he played a 17th-century Ottoman soldier with a full beard, and for Sandokan, the adaptation of Emilio Salgari's novel, he went through extreme physical preparation, with a wild beard and pirate mane.

He had appeared without a beard before, but only at the start of his career: in Gönül İşleri (2014) and İnadına Aşk (2015-2016) he alternated between a clean-shaven face, a moustache and a goatee. What does all this tell us? That for an actor, looks are a tool, not an identity. The fans, judging by the reactions, are finding that harder to accept than he is.