Low tapers, perms and $100 cuts: Inside Gen Alpha boys' hair obsession

Textured hair. Fringe in front. Clean, closely cropped edges. No sideburns.

Something is happening with Gen Alpha boys' hair. The names — and the cuts themselves — vary, but the overall look is similar.

"I hear a lot of 'low taper,' 'blowout taper,' 'textured fringe' and 'burst fade,'" Nashville barber Edgar Hernandez tells Yahoo. "They're extremely popular, especially with younger clients."

The terminology can get confusing fast. Austin barber Jaxon5K wrote on Instagram that the "broccoli head" is the most popular cut for kids heading back to school, then got more specific: Instead of the "usual low taper," he gave one customer a "low fade textured fringe."

In other words, broccoli — or broccolini, given these kids' ages — may describe the vibe. The precise cut is another matter. Hernandez says boys roughly 8 to 14 years old are generally after the same thing: keeping length and texture on top and the sides clean.

"Kids still want curls, volume and texture on top, but now they're combining that with clean low tapers and blowout tapers," Hernandez says.

For some boys, that even means getting a perm .

"Perms are also part of it for some kids with straighter hair," Hernandez says. "Others already have the natural texture and just need the right haircut and styling."

You don't have to spend long scrolling TikTok to see what he means — though I did, watching somewhere around 100 hair reels. Along the way, I learned that boys this age care a lot about their hair, and TikTok is helping shape what they get.

Hernandez is part of a booming barber culture on social media. As @EdgarBlessYou , he has a combined 1.2 million followers on TikTok and Instagram, where he films clients getting their cuts, talks to them about the looks they're hoping to achieve and posts their transformations.

And I get why these videos have an audience. I could watch the transformations for hours — the shaggy before, the meticulous cut and styling, the sideburns disappearing, then the big reveal. (Some barbers, like Hernandez and the man behind the Akira Cutz account , add magnetic stud earrings to their tween clients' "after" poses for extra flair.)

"Sometimes they don't even know the name of the haircut," he says. "They just show me the video and say, 'I want this.' The phone has basically become the new haircut catalog."

Social media isn't the only influence. Hernandez says friends, athletes (see: sideburn-less World Cup stars ), musicians and influencers also shape what boys ask for. But he has watched low tapers and blowout tapers become more popular over the last couple of years as short-form video has grown.

In his videos, Hernandez also asks clients how they found him. Most say online, either themselves or through a parent. Some have traveled hours to his Nashville shop.

The reviews tell the same story. One parent wrote on Booksy that the family traveled three hours for Hernandez to cut her 8-year-old's hair. Another said her 9-year-old chose Hernandez, telling her he wanted "that guy from TikTok."

The haircut isn't just inspired by social media. It becomes social media, with the boys starring in the same kinds of transformation videos that brought many of them to Hernandez in the first place.

These makeovers typically cost more than the basic kiddie cuts served up with a balloon and lollipop. Hernandez's cuts start at $105 and go to $150 for a full transformation. He's not alone in commanding those prices . Austin barber Jaxon5K summed it up: "These cuts ain't cheap."

Boys are into their hair — and then some

This summer, Sport Clips commissioned Atomik Research to survey 1,000 parents of boys ages 11 to 17 and found that the most desired back-to-school hairstyle was a tapered fade, chosen by 30% of respondents.

"They're exposed to so much content that they already know what they like and how they want to look," Hernandez says.

That interest extends beyond their haircut. In the same survey, 84% of parents said their sons care more about their appearance by the time they reach middle or high school.

Tween beauty has largely been a girls' story . We hear about Sephora hauls and elaborate skin care routines . All the while, boys have been building a beauty culture of their own.

Business of Fashion beauty correspondent Liz Flora recently reported on Gen Alpha boys' growing interest in beauty and grooming.

Los Angeles hairstylist Stephen Pierce told her that after giving one tween a low taper with a textured fringe, the boy's friends liked it so much that they started booking appointments. According to Pierce, his younger clientele is especially brand-conscious, with some bringing their own hair products that they found on — you guessed it — TikTok.

"Hairstyle trends have always changed with teen and tween boys, but TikTok hair videos have really helped them embrace beauty tutorial content in a way that we haven't seen before," Flora tells Yahoo.

While the early beauty YouTube boom centered heavily on makeup tutorials, she says, short-form videos of boys' hairstyling have "gained a ton of traction."

Both social media and real-life peer influence matter, Flora says. TikTok may influence what hair products they buy, while friend recommendations can help them find their favorite hairstylist.

The vocabulary around boys' appearance is also changing.

"A lot of looksmaxxing lingo has made its way into the mainstream," Flora says, noting that one hairstylist frequently heard tween boys talking about "texture maxxing" and "hair maxxing."

At the same time, she says the more toxic looksmaxxing influencers are increasingly being mocked, helping make them "uncool" among young people.

For all the terminology, the online influence and "hair maxxing," there's still something very familiar happening: Kids want to look cool, and parents are paying for it.

And then there's the upkeep. Depending on the type of fade or taper, keeping it sharp may mean a touch-up every two to four weeks .

The precision isn't always obvious to parents. Moms have joked online about spending all that time and money on their sons' hair only to have them come home looking — at least to Mom — almost exactly the same.

The boys, of course, know the difference.