Fact being stranger than fiction and all that, the BBC notes that:
Men in North Korea are now required to get the same haircut as their leader Kim Jong-un, it is reported.
The state-sanctioned guidelines were introduced in the capital Pyongyang about two weeks ago, media reports say. It is now being rolled out across the country โ although some people have reservations about getting the look.
โOur leaderโs haircut is very particular, if you will,โ one source tells Radio Free Asia. โIt doesnโt always go with everyone since everyone has different face and head shapes.โ Meanwhile, a North Korean now living in China says the look is actually unpopular at home because people think it resembles Chinese smugglers. โUntil the mid-2000s, we called it the โChinese smuggler haircutโ,โ the Korea Times reports.
Once upon a time, North Korean men enjoyed a thriving free market in haircuts, with the state restricting their choice only to ten approved styles:
It seems that haircuts have been state-approved in North Korea for some time โ until now people were only allowed to choose from 18 styles for women and 10 for men. Earlier, North Koreaโs state TV launched a campaign against long hair, called โLet us trim our hair in accordance with the Socialist lifestyleโ.
Let us indeed. But thatโs not quite fair, is it? I understand the leveling tendency here: Socialists donโt like inequality, so men with flowing locks need to be cut down to size for the good of the order. But what about the completely bald? How otherizing must it be to watch all of your comrades strutting around with their trendy Chinese smuggler cuts while youโre stuck at home, stroking your barren pate and humming โOnwards to the Final Victoryโ through self-conscious tears?
Not a particularly sensitive move from Kim Jong-un. Perhaps itโll cost him the next election.






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