Bake Off legend is completely unrecognisable with shaggy hair in 80s throwback
A Great British Bake Off icon is completely unrecognisable in a throwback 80s picture.
In fact, his shaggy locks make him look rather more like his co-star than himself four decades later.
Fans of the beloved baking competition were sent wild when its Instagram account posted a picture of Paul Hollywood from his ‘art school days’.
A very young Paul, who is now 58, was unrecognisable behind long, dark hair covering the front of his face.
It’s a very different hairdo to the silver fox look he has going on now.
He appeared to be holding a cat in his arms, wearing an open shirt and a rucksack.
Fans have been left shocked at the throwback image, with several comparing him to Bake Off host Noel Fielding.
‘I never wanna hear him make fun of Noel again,’ @emroserva said.
The Bake Off account joked back: ‘He may be wearing skinny jeans and snake skin boots in the bottom half of the photo. We’ll never know.’
‘Especially since I could easily mistake him for Noel – face and all!’ @janemacdonald2019 added.
‘Paul with long hair!? Now I’ve seen everything,’ @giggletotsradio said.
‘At first I thought it was Noel! Hahaha!’ @joneznj wrote, while @lexdex23 said: ‘I’d love to see Noel’s reaction to this, his hair stylist’s too.’
‘100% thought this was Noel,’ @lauren.ket said, as @stoivey questioned: ‘Does Noel’s school picture look like Paul?’
‘I actually thought it was Noel.. brothers from a different mother,’ @mistardesigns wrote.
Paul’s come a long way since those art school days, after beginning his career as a teenager in his father’s bakery before huge success.
The Hollywood handshakes icon was also recently revealed to be one of TV’s richest stars, raking in more than £14,000,000 last year,with his salary matching that of top footballers.
Paul, who has been a judge on the amateur baking programme since its launch in 2010, previously commented that he never thought he’d be on telly, and finds fame ‘horrendous’.
When asked about whether fame has been a positive experience, he said: ‘No, it’s horrendous. I’ve always fought against the word “celebrity”, anyway. Right up to the age of 40, there was no way I thought I was ever going to be on telly.
‘This came out of nowhere, and you have to adapt to it.
‘There’s no school to go to learn how to deal with the press, or your day-to-day life, and how to block it off without going crazy and getting upset. You can’t.
‘You just have to grow a very thick skin. Now I’ve got a skin like a crocodile.’
The Great British Bake Off is available to watch on Channel 4.
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