In a press conference shared by Team USA today, Lochte explained that the wild new look was a replacement for the puzzling grills (grillz?) he's worn throughout his career. Also, it's a nice way to cover up his apparently graying hair.
"Usually I've always worn my grills at the Olympics and I think I left my grills at home so I was like, I gotta do something different. So I said, 'Why not the hair?' I get a lot of questions saying, that, oh, you're hiding your gray hair, now that I'm 32 - which is true. But I went full gray. Grayish-blue."
Here's Lochte's initial announcement of the new 'do:
And here's the full press conference video:
.@RyanLochte on his new hair and being the "underdog".https://t.co/YdSua7TDlE
- U.S. Olympic Team (@TeamUSA) August 4, 2016