We present new measurements of the interstellar reddening parameter R_V_=A_V_/E(B-V) towards 185 O stars, using J, H, Ks photometry from the 2MASS project. The average R_V_ from these is of 3.19+/-0.50. All objects whose R_V_ departs from this value by more than 2 sigma have been recognized. Ten objects have R_V_ higher than this value and two lower. In the Cygnus region R_V_ values follow the behaviour of the general interstellar medium, while in the Carina arm, in spite of the relatively larger distance, local cloud effects prevail. The relatively few stars of our sample whose Hipparcos parallaxes are reliable, are found to have distances systematically smaller than the distances derived by the spectroscopic parallaxes. We argue that this effect is consistent with the recently claimed discovery of grey extinction towards OB stars.