The once mocked hairstyle is gaining traction on the heads of young people around the world as they take to social media to share their embrace of what is being dubbed the 'Zoomer curl'.
Boys, some as young as 12, report spending up to $100 (sometimes more) to get the chemical-induced frizz that was popular in the '80s and '90s before falling out of style.
“I remember us giving men perms and making fun of them afterwards,” TAFE NSW Hairdressing and Hairdressing Principal Lecturer Danielle Tedesco said recently Sydney Morning Herald.
“There was a time when I was doing seven or eight spiral perms for women a day, but the men were rarely on board. Now the industry has changed and the number of men requesting perms has increased.”
The latest iteration of the men's perm has been compared to everything from broccoli (with long, layered curls at the top that look a bit like cruciferous florets) to llama head hair.
While men in Japan and South Korea have been perming their hair for decades, it's a “renaissance” in Western countries, Los Angeles-based celebrity hairstylist Clayton Hawkins said. GQ“running through at least 2021,” has become the style of choice for Gen Z TikTok influencers like Noah Beck and Dylan Latham.
However, the Zoomer perm frenzy really reached a fever pitch when filming director James Gunn's Superman the film went viral on X, showing David Carensuet's Clark Kent with what Mr. Hawkins called a “TikTok f**kboy broccoli chop.”
“As someone who loves curly hair, I totally understand,” he said.
“I think one of the reasons guys like it so much is because if your hair is curly, you can just let it air dry and do your thing. No need to stylize. I think Clark Kent having a (man perm) is iconic.”
The style has become so popular that New York hair salon Hairrari was recently forced to stop offering it due to high demand and the strong ammonia smell of the perming solution.
“They are very popular, but they are very smelly,” said one stylist GQadding that the salon sends requests for looks several times a week.
“They just stink at everything. It smells like eggs.”
Brisbane-based barber Matthew Clarke, winner of the 2023 Australian Contemporary Hairdresser of the Year award, has seen a similar level of demand at Esquire Hairdressing, where he works.
“We have clients aged 16 to 27 to add volume to classic '80s mullets,” he said. Herald.
“Young guys are going hard and there has been a huge increase in requests for perms over the last eight months.
“Hairdressers like us now offer chemical treatments, which is great for those who still feel weird about going to the salon.”
In 2020, the aforementioned TikTok star Latham made a bet with his 1.5 million followers on the platform that if a certain video reached 500,000 likes, he would get a perm.
“It ended up getting two million likes and eight million views,” recalls the teenager from the American state of Virginia. GQ.
After that, he showed himself in the salon with curlers and perm in his hair – a clip that “exploded”.
“Actually, everyone at my school used to make fun of me. I was a perm kid. But after the video blew up, I went so viral that people couldn't say much. And then I saw kids around my school start showing up with it,” Latham said.
“Young people are taking care of their hair more than ever because of social media … Every guy who's been on TikTok, every guy who's gone viral and been considered very attractive has had this bushy hair look. So it was kind of like if you don't have it, you're missing out.”
