When Evan Mock, a 21-year-old skateboarder, photographer, and Californian by way of Hawaii’s North Shore decided to lop off his shaggy dark lengths in favor of a buzz cut on a trip back home, he knew dramatic change was afoot. But the reverberations that would run through the Internet as his crop treaded into Manic Panic territory, most notoriously capturing the attention of music trailblazer and hair chameleon Frank Ocean, were beyond his wildest imagination.

“I’d been wanting to shave my head for a long time because it felt like my long, thick hair kind of defined me,” explains Mock of the sun-kissed brunette mop top that always fell just right across his deep brown gaze and chiseled cheekbones. “I was just like, ‘Fuck it.’” Mock, who has been signed to IMG Models since he was teenager, decided to up the ante a few weeks later: Not just by bleaching his buzz, but dyeing it neon pink, too, with help from colorist Jonah Face, based in Wahiawa, Oahu.

Freshly peroxided, Mock headed to the skate park later that day. When his friend, artist Tom Sachs, asked if he could record a quick video of him saying hello to his friend Frank, Mock obliged. “Tom was like, ‘Hey, my friend Frank has cool hair like you, say what’s up to him!’” he explains. “I didn’t think anything of it.” The next morning, Mock woke up to check his phone and found he was gaining thousands of Instagram followers by the hour. He realized it wasn’t just any Frank—it was Ocean he’d greeted virtually. What’s more, the singer had posted the video of Mock, flashing a rhinestone-studded grin and carving it up in a bowl with his neon fuchsia hair, to his personal Instagram.

While Mock, who now has upwards of 75,000 followers on Instagram, still doesn’t know why Ocean posted the video, it’s not a shocking move when you consider that the singer is a poster child of subversive fuzz, having experimented with ice blue, acid green, and blush pink shades with his own close-cropped hair. No matter what the reason (it’s Frank Ocean, does he even need one?), Ocean’s endorsement—especially on Instagram, considering the singer only made his account available to the public this past fall—is a serious coup.

“He’s an original,” Mock explains. “And like [Frank] I aspire to keep reinventing myself. I want to express myself while keeping people on their toes.” In that spirit, the rising creative credits Ocean for empowering him and his peers to buck feminine and masculine stereotypes. “There are no boundaries now,” says Mock, who plans on keeping his hair neon fuchsia for the foreseeable future. “You can do whatever the fuck you want!”