A broccoli haircut (also known as a Zoomer perm, bird's nest [1] and in the UK as the meet me at McDonald's haircut [2] or alpaca back and sides) is a type of haircut with tapered sides and layered curls on top, usually achieved with a perm. [3] 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. [4] 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", [5] [6] "bussin haircut" [5] or "alpaca hair". [7] It has been described as a variation on a bowl cut. [4] [8]
The precursor to the modern broccoli haircut first appeared in the early 1980s among fans of new wave groups such as Soft Cell, Talking Heads, A Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Wham! It was a grown-out, unstyled version of the quiff popular in the early 1980s that was frequently permed or made to look big with hair spray. [9]
During the early and mid 2010s, the permed undercuts of the 80s and 90s underwent a revival. [10] The trend was inspired by hairstyles popular during the New Romantic movement of the 1980s, such as mullets and shags. [6] By 2018, possibly having been popularized by rapper Little T (Joshua Tate), the hairstyle had gained recognition in the UK as the "Meet me at McDonald's haircut". [2] The hairstyle achieved media exposure after a school in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk banned pupils from possessing the style. [11] [12]
During the COVID-19 lockdowns of the early 2020s, many younger Gen Z men in the UK and United States 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. [5] [4] 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. [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. [6] GQ 's Alex Nino Gheciu argued that the broccoli haircut had reached its peak by 2024. [5] Also in 2024, Marie Claire 's Samantha Holender called the haircut "the TikTok tween boy hallmark". [4]
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