Let's trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle...

Tokyo: North Korean men hoping to emulate their "Dear Leader", Kim Jong-il, by sporting a bouffant hairstyle have been instructed to do their bit for socialism by cutting it off.

State television is showing a series of programs instructing shabbily coiffured men on the personal grooming required of a citizen of the vehemently anti-capitalist state.

The five-part series, entitled "Let's trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle", exhorted them to opt for one of several officially sanctioned haircuts, including the crew cut and the "high, middle and low" styles. Hair should be kept between one and five centimetres in length and should be trimmed every 15 days, it said.

But even the world's most conformist state is prepared to allow a little flair in special cases: men over 50 may grow their hair to the positively bohemian length of seven centimetres on top to hide the effects of balding.

The series, which began last year as part of the regular Common Sense program, claimed that long hair is unhealthy and adversely affects "human intelligence development".

 

... via smh