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As It Happens

Is Kim Jong-un's hairdo the next 'Rachel'? Um, no

Some haircuts become a kind of cultural figurehead. "The Rachel", for example -- modeled on the haircut Jennifer Aniston wore as Rachel on Friends. For a while there in the mid-'90s, we all went into salons with a photo of "The Rachel." And some of us wear it to this day, because we just love the layering, even if our...
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Some haircuts become a kind of cultural figurehead. "The Rachel", for example -- modeled on the haircut Jennifer Aniston wore as Rachel on Friends. For a while there in the mid-'90s, we all went into salons with a photo of "The Rachel." And some of us wear it to this day, because we just love the layering, even if our hairdressers tell us, "this is a little outdated."

Other haircuts, though, don't spearhead a movement in styling. The haircut of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un, for example. It's ridiculous and unflattering -- although, to be frank, not even "The Rachel" could save the so-called "Dear Leader" from looking like a vengeful, man-sized baby.

If you've forgotten what that haircut looks like, where we've put up a detailed infographic:

Infographic by Ben Edwards/CBC

Anyway, this past weekend, a New York artist put up a sign. It read: "Honour The Supreme Leader -- Let Us Trim Our Hair In Accordance With The Socialist Lifestyle". And: "Free Kim Jong-un Haircuts." It was part of an arts festival called "Bushwick Open Studios." The artist, Katie Grace McGowan, is not really a stylist. By her own description, she's "naturally ungifted." But seven people still submitted to her clippers.

Ms. McGowan wasn't just giving people an atrocious hairdo for laughs. She is interested in "the line between a fascist dictatorship and a functioning communist society." And when people sat down in the chair, she talked to them, and later summed up what she heard this way:

"It really ran the gamut from bros who thought it was funny or wild to get their hair cut, to a Korean woman who really took it seriously, and said she appreciated the whimsy of American artists, and she thought this was a smart, fun way to poke fun at North Korea and this mentality."

I'll remind you that this took place at an arts festival. If you just walked into a random crowd offering free Kim Jong-un haircuts, I imagine people would behave just like the haircut -- by parting down the middle.

Related story:
North Korean men MUST have hair cut like Kim Jong-un (Mar. 26/14)

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