WEIRD NEWS OF THE WEEK: All men in North Korea ordered to get Kim Jong-un haircuts

Kim Jong-un's distinctive hairstyle is about to get a whole lot more popular in North Korea...

17:41 26 March 2014

It has been reported that all men in North Korea must now adopt the same haircut as their leader Kim Jong-un as a sign of solidarity with their leader.

State-sanctioned guidelines first appeared in the capital of Pyongyang a fortnight ago according to local media. After a successful trial, the scheme is being rolled out across the entire nation.

Naturally, not everybody is pleased with the fashion order.

One source told Radio Free Asia: "Our leader's haircut is very particular, if you will. It doesn't always go with everyone since everyone has different face and head shapes."

The Korea Times quoted a North Korean who now lives in China who said that the haircut is actually unpopular because of its link to undesirables of society. The source said: "Until the mid-2000s, we called it the 'Chinese smuggler haircut."

This certainly isn't the first state meddling in their nation's locks. North Korean state TV famously promoted a campaign against long hair which was snappily entitled 'Let's trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle'. Men who sported long hair were arrested and had their locks cut. Ironically only balding men were spared - they could grow longer hairs than the rest to fashion comb-overs to disguise their balding.

Until the news of the Kim Jong-un tribute cut, North Koreans were reportedly allowed to choose from a set amount of styles (18 for women and 10 for men).