A broccoli haircut (also known as a Zoomer perm and in the UK as the meet me at McDonald's haircut) is a type of haircut with tapered sides and layered curls on top, usually achieved with a perm. It became popular among teenage and tween boys in the 2020s, particularly due to its spread on TikTok, and became an Internet meme around the same time.
The broccoli haircut is a hairstyle with tapered sides and short, uneven layered curls on top, which are often permed. [1] It is referred to as such due to its resemblance to a floret of broccoli. It has also been referred to as the "Zoomer perm" for its popularity among members of Generation Z, as well as "bird's nest hair" [2] [3] or "alpaca hair". [4] It has been described as a variation on a bowl cut. [1] [5]
The precursor to the modern broccoli haircut first appeared around 1982 among fans of new wave music groups such as Soft Cell, Talking Heads, A Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, and Wham! It was a grown-out, unstyled version of the quiff [6] popular in the early 80s that was frequently permed or made to look big with hair spray. A similar haircut known as the punch perm was popular among bikers in Japan and pop singers in Korea [7] throughout the 80s and 90s. [8]
During the early and mid 2010s, the permed undercuts of the 80s and 90s underwent a revival. [9] The trend was inspired by hairstyles popular during the New Romantic movement of the 1980s, such as mullets and shags. [3] By 2018, it had become known in the UK as the "Meet me at McDonald's haircut", and achieved media exposure after a school in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk banned pupils from possessing the style. [10] [11]
During the covid lockdowns of the early 2020s, many younger Gen Z guys in the UK and America experimented with new hairstyles at home before the barbers reopened. In 2020, Dillon Latham, a then-15-year-old TikToker, posted a clip of himself getting a perm in the style of the broccoli haircut, which prompted its early spread among teenage and tween boys. It soon became more a trend in 2021 after being worn by TikTokers such as Noah Beck, Bryce Hall, Harry Jowsey, and Jack Doherty. [2] [1] That same year, it became an Internet meme and a subject of scorn online, beginning with a 4chan thread that coined the phrase "Zoomer perm" to describe it. [12] The haircut also became unfavorably associated with stereotypical "fuck boys" and "gym bros". [13]
The broccoli haircut was especially popular by 2022 and gained further attention online in 2024 when a photo of American actor David Corenswet on the set of James Gunn's 2025 film Superman showed him with what many online described as a broccoli haircut, which was mocked by social media users. [3] GQ 's Alex Nino Gheciu argued that the broccoli haircut had reached its peak by 2024. [2] Also in 2024, Marie Claire 's Samantha Holender called the haircut "the TikTok tween boy hallmark". [1]
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