Thanks to social media, fashion and beauty trends reach kids at a much faster rate than ever before. Teens and tweens are constantly attracted to new things thanks to influencers begging their parents to help them participate in whatever is currently deemed the coolest.
And even though young girls are often the main target for these social media fashion and beauty trends, the latest one is aimed at teenage boys. Gen-Z boys are flocking to hair salons to get the "broccoli cut," a viral haircut that requires getting a perm. If you're unaware of this trend, keep reading to learn more.
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The viral haircut goes by several names.
Known mostly as the "broccoli cut," the "llama fur cut," and a whole host of other names, the haircut is gaining traction with Zoomers. The cut was described by GQ as "tapered sides with long, layered curls on top that are brushed forward and resemble the florets of broccoli."
"The man perm renaissance has been going on since at least 2021," celebrity hairstylist Clayton Hawkins told GQ. "As someone who loves curly hair, I totally get it. I think one of the reasons guys like it so much is that if your hair is permed, you can basically just let it air dry and do its thing. There’s no need to style."
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It's become incredibly popular with the TikTok crowd.
TikTok influencers like Noah Beck, Jack Doherty, and Bryce Hall all rock the broccoli cut. TikToker Dillon Latham has used the haircut to create a mini empire. In 2020, when he was 15, he made a bet with his followers that changed everything for him.
"I was like, ‘If this gets 500,000 likes, I'll get a perm.’ It ended up getting 2 million likes and 8 million views," Dillon explained. Suddenly, a video of him getting a perm exploded on social media. He now has more than one million TikTok followers.
"I actually got made fun of a lot by everybody in my school. I was the perm kid," he said. "But after the video blew up, I had gone so viral that people couldn't really say much. And then I saw kids around my school start popping up with it."
He turned his popularity into a hair care brand called Clean Cut Cosmetics, which sells "six figures a month" in volumizing sea salt spray.
Many boys love the hair cut because it's fairly low-maintenance.
A hairstyle such as the broccoli cut is ideal for teen boys who don't really want to do a lot to make their hair look styled. It's hugely popular with boys who have naturally straight hair, giving them texture and visual interest. Prices for the cut and perm can range from $40 to over $100 depending on where you go.
"My mom was gonna make me either get short hair or a perm, so I got the perm," 13-year-old Zane Probus told The Cut about his and his 10-year-old brother Levi's choice to get the style.
"She says she wants our hair out of our eyes so she can see us," Levi explained.
"I do my own. All I do is take a shower and let it dry, and it looks good," Zane boasted.
The trend has a chokehold on teen boys.
Dillon told GQ that he thinks the rise in popularity for the hairstyle is because "young people care about their hair more than ever because of social media," and everyone is getting that look.
"All the guys coming up on TikTok, every guy who went viral and was considered highly attractive had this fluffy hair look. So it was kind of like, if you didn't have that, you're missing out," he said.
"Our generation’s very easily influenced by social media and big influencers on these apps," 17-year-old Jayden Williams told the magazine. "If something gains popularity, we want to hop on that trend as soon as possible and as quickly as possible to claim it. A lot of people are kinda like sheep. We want to follow the trends."
It's reaching its pop culture peak, but will it fizzle out?
The conversation about the broccoli cut really blew up after the first photos of James Gunn's upcoming film Superman made their way to the public. Clark Kent, played by David Corenswet, was seen wearing the curly mop on top of his head.
"This is the first time I've ever seen Gen-Z fashion not in an explicitly Gen-Z character, but in an iconic pop culture figure," media studies professor Matthew Ellis told GQ. "When I saw even Superman has the haircut, I was like, ‘Alright, something has happened. We’ve crossed a threshold."
But these boys are aware that much like the mullet or the Justin Bieber mop top, this style will eventually fade from popularity.
"I mean, the style is probably very much a product of the time. A lot of people are exposed to it on social media so they’re like, Oh yeah, that looks good," 17-year-old Brooks Eddy told The Cut. "But we’ll probably look back on this and it’ll be like soul patches of the 2000s or mullets in the ’90s."
