I'm going to confess something to you, dear sweet readers: I have bizarre, unreasonable and age-inappropriate crushes on a couple of celebrities. But not just any celebrities - I tend to fall head over heels for the ones that have something to teach me about a topic. Like Alton Brown and his Good Eats (he taught me how to
grill cheese),
Anthony Bourdain and his everything, and then one of my all-time favorite childhood loves: Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Don't hate. Bill Nye is a flippin' genius, and anyone that can talk science to me in a way that makes sense - all while wearing a bad a** bowtie -
definitely ranks up there on the babe-o-meter. Science is sexy, you guys, and Bill is definitely having a moment right now. He's releasing a
new book about climate change, and he also may or may not have a rad new show on National Geographic called
Bill Nye's Global Meltdown, which may or may not have already broken the internet when one of the promo photos became a viral meme...
And he's also proving himself to be fashion-forward with
his bow tie collaboration with menswear designer, Nick Graham. That's right. Bill Nye has his own line of bow ties. In an interview he did with
Fashionista, our favorite scientist admitted that while he'd been offered the chance to endorse bow ties before now, it wasn't until he met the founder of Joe Boxer that everything clicked. In fact, Bill has a lot more interest in fashion and beauty than we might have ever imagined.
Who are Bill's style icons? "Humphrey Bogart's characters in his movies, Fred Astaire, James Bond. That's it. Whatever they're wearing, I'm in." He told Fashionista, but perhaps his favorite fashion inspiration is his dad. "I wear a bow tie, and I don't know if I'm able to achieve this, but my aunt used to describe my father as 'crisp,'" he said, "my father was very crisp, and she liked it. I think that's cool. I'd like to be crisp."
Bill also appreciates being dapper for his audience, saying he appreciates the way Jerry Seinfeld dresses up for his audience: "Seinfeld wears a tie and sport coat when he does stand-up because he says you want to dress better than the audience,"
he said, "for me it's a little more subtle than that: You want to dress that way out of respect for the audience. I've come here, you've paid money to come see me, I'm going to dress up for you." Can we possibly love him more? Yes. Yes, we can. Because he also has a lot of insight into beauty rituals.
"Just know that I have no endorsement in this at all, but I use Pond's," he told
Fashionista, "Pond's is an ancient product. My grandmother used Pond's. And so do I." And he uses it twice a day, saying he became addicted to eye creams when his friend introduced him to Mary Kay's men's products many years ago. He's always open to trying new products, but he said he definitely "does not embrace the super expensive," because he doesn't believe those products are necessarily better than their lower-priced counterparts.
He also is a new believer of the
Art of Shaving, and shaves every day out of habit. He's skeptical of the one-bladed razor, saying "multiple [blades] gives you a much closer shave, are you high?! [Laughing] And I know a lot of people use electric razors, but it just doesn't get as close a shave."
Bill may be a self-described "old guy," but it's no secret that he has a glorious mane. How does he do it? "I air dry it, with a towel. Have you seen that technology? It's a cotton cloth that you rub on your hair." In fact, he feels extremely passionate about the topic of hair dryers. He hates them - not only are they damaging to our hair, but they hurt the environment, too: "A conventional hair dryer uses about fifteen hundred watts. That's over a horsepower. So an Olympic cyclist, a guy or a gal at the top of his game, cannot, at 100 percent efficiency, pedal hard enough to drive your hair dryer. If you want to save energy, if you want to do something for the environment, think about that."
We're on board with you, Bill. Stay crisp. And if you ever need a shopping buddy, you just let us know.