All The Boys (And Men) Are Getting Perms
Episode 7 is about why and how becoming curly later in life makes them feel.
When did men of all ages decide to get a broccoli cut?
People talk about how teen boys and young men are getting perms. We investigated this shift, from K-Pop to TikTok and the fact that these days more people are swiping right on curly guys.
Episode 7 is out now:
Perms were invented by the German hairdresser Charles Nessler in the early 1900s, around the same time William Kellogg began selling cornflakes.
Here’s what the machine looked like, per a LIFE Magazine article posted about Nessler’s death:
Later, Marjorie Stewart Joyner patented a new version. Joyner worked for Madam C.J. Walker, the first Black woman to become a self-made millionaire in the U.S. One evening, Joyner was cooking a pot roast and noticed how the metal rods would heat the meat from within. So she affixed pot roast rods to a hair dryer hood and began experimenting.
Beyond the history, you’ll hear an honest reflection from a man who got a perm in his 30s about how it changed how other people see him — people literally tell him that — and also how he sees himself.
Leave a comment if you have someone with this perm or haircut in your life — and which of the nicknames for it they identify most with:
alpaca teen gym bro
broccoli perm
bussin cut
bird’s nest
Tiktok fboy
tell me if there’s one I missed that we should add to the list!
Subscribe to the pod on Apple and Spotify, and find us on Instagram to follow along as we test MAYURA products.