In case you weren’t aware, the internet has been going kryptonite crazy over Superman’s new haircut. A set photo from James Gunn’s upcoming take on the Man of Steel recently surfaced online, revealing David Corenswet’s Clark Kent sporting a radically different super-mane than we’re used to seeing. Gone is the classic side part, replaced by a style that’s become prominent among Gen Z: tapered sides with long, layered curls on top that are brushed forward and resemble the florets of broccoli.
Reaction was swift online, with many fans expressing outrage over Kent’s coiffure, calling it everything from “alpaca teen gym bro hair” to the “TikTok fuck boy cut.”
“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,” says Matthew Ellis, a Portland-based media studies professor who has noticed “the fucking curly hair” sprouting up in his classrooms. “When I saw even Superman has the haircut, I was like, ‘Alright, something has happened. We’ve crossed a threshold.’”
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The Zoomer perm—also known as the broccoli cut and bird’s nest hair—has had a stranglehold on teenage boys’ heads over the last few years. Walk through any shopping mall or Planet Fitness and you’ll likely see flocks of floppy-haired dudes seemingly spawning by the second. It’s the style of choice for TikTok stars like Noah Beck, Jack Doherty, and Bryce Hall. And while it’s become fodder for countless memes roasting Gen Zers and their slang, the look doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. Deadass.
“The man perm renaissance has been going on since at least 2021,” says LA-based celebrity hairstylist Clayton Hawkins. “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. I think the fact that Clark Kent has a TikTok F-boy broccoli cut is kind of iconic.”
So sought-after is the style that New York barbershop Hairrari recently had to stop offering it due to high demand and the strong ammonia odor of the perm solution. “They're very popular, but very smelly,” says a Hairrari stylist, adding the shop still gets bird’s nest requests several times a week. “They just stink up the whole place. It smells like eggs.”
Perms on guys, of course, were a big fad among the hair metal set in the ’80s and ’90s, but Hawkins explains the trend in its current iteration started with the tousled and choppy hairstyles popularized by K-pop groups like BTS and Exo before catching on with kids in the US via TikTok.
In 2020, Dillon Latham, then 15, made a bet with his TikTok followers. “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,” recalls the Virginia teen. Soon after, he posted another video of himself at a salon with curlers and perming agent in his hair. The clip exploded.
“I actually got made fun of a lot by everybody in my school. I was the perm kid. 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,” says Latham, who now has 1.5 million TikTok followers. He spun that momentum into his own hair care brand called Clean Cut Cosmetics, which he says sells “six figures a month” in volumizing sea salt spray.
Latham thinks a big reason the trend has spread so malignantly is that “young people care about their hair more than ever because of social media,” and every popular lad online just happens to have a perm. “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 says.
While the ’90s were all about rejecting mainstream aesthetics, Gen Z really seems to have a thing for fitting in with peer groups and gaining social approval through likes and followers.
“Our generation’s very easily influenced by social media and big influencers on these apps,” says Jayden Williams, a mop-topped 17-year-old from Toronto who permed his hair in high school. “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.”
But Zoomer curl FOMO has led to a mass copy and pasting of the hairstyle, and the fact that every guy born after the millennium has the same veggie crown might explain why it’s become so memeable.
“It’s the new COVID. I travel all across the country and I see it everywhere,” says Bryan Torresdey, a New York-based comedian whose TikTok skewering the broccoli cut went viral.
The haircut also tends to evoke a certain image of a vape cloud-blowing, floor mattress-sleeping, Jordan Peterson apologist. “It's such a specific person who rocks it: the guy who's chugging a Celsius while taking multiple selfies in the gym mirror,” says Torresday. “Superman now has a hint of young douche, which is really great. Maybe he's just gonna bang Lois Lane and then ghost her.”
Still, Gen Z is supposed to be the most self-aware and chronically online of all generations. Surely, they’ve seen all the jokes about the florets fade. Zoomers contend the curly mop has evolved over the last couple years, moving away from the dense, broccoli-like curls seen in many of the memes towards a more relaxed flow.
“Nowadays it's really about that loose perm, that fluffy hair that has more of a wave to it. It looks way more natural. The super tight, super curly look is not cool anymore,” says Kris Grippo, a shaggy-haired TikTok influencer from Switzerland. The 22-year-old, who boasts 8.5 million followers, thinks all the web zingers about the denser curls may have played a role in the style’s metamorphosis. “The broccoli cut became a meme. And after that, I mean, you don’t want to be a meme.”
Jay Lorenzana, co-owner of Toronto’s La Section Barbershop, has noticed a surge in requests for looser curls, which are created by using fewer rods in the perming process. “The way I see it is, that's a $50 haircut and another $80 for a perm. So I'm not complaining either way,” he says.
Even if guys are now rocking a different iteration of the TikTok tresses, it truly feels like we’ve hit peak perm. Grippo admits Gen Z curls may be reaching a tipping point the same way the Bieber swoop reached critical mass in the 2010s before falling out of favor. “It's coming to that point where you can go to any city and every teenager has the same haircut,” he says. “It’s really crazy.”
But Grippo says a crucial distinction with the Zoomer perm is a conversation we may not be ready to have: it complements most face types. The cut can help balance facial proportions by adding width or height where needed. And for an increasingly image-conscious generation, a universally flattering hairstyle is everything. Fr fr.
“It looks good on everyone. It doesn't matter if you have a round face or a slim face,” he says. “It looks appealing even if you have a big forehead. If you’re insecure about your face, it can cover half of it.”