No, North Koreans aren't being forced to adopt Kim Jong-un's hairstyle

In a week where there was genuine crazy North Korean news, it seems more than unfortunate that what gained traction is likely bullshit: Radio Free Asia claims North Koreans are being forced to adopt leader Kim Jong-un's iconicly terrible hairstyle. 

Colleges in North Korea have ordered male students to sport the same hairstyle as the country's young leader Kim Jong Un while female students are being advised to keep their hair as short as that of first lady Ri Sol Ju, according to sources inside the hermit kingdom.

The order, issued in early March, has sparked resentment among some male students not in favor of trading their hairstyle for Kim's shaved sides and long parted top look, which a decade ago was regarded as a style sported by smugglers, the sources said.

The instruction for male students to get the same haircut as their leader is not based on any directive from Kim but on a recommendation from the ruling Workers' Party, according to a North Korean from North Hamgyong province near the border with China.

This news is almost certainly false, according to Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours (and the Dennis Rodman Experiment), who recently returned from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Other than Kim Jong-un himself, I've never seen anyone in North Korea with that particular haircut," said Cockerell, a veteran of over a hundred trips to the country. 

This assessment has been supported by other North Korea watchers, one of whom told NK News that since Kim Jong-un succeeded his father to the supreme leadership there has actually been a relaxation of fashion restrictions. 

The RFA report builds on another popular myth that women in North Korea only have 28 state sanctioned hairstyles to choose from. This myth however, is built upon a poster of a selection of hairstyles featured on the wall of a Pyongyang barber which went viral. The poster was only intended to show potential hairstyles, not forbid any alternatives.

Even state regulations about hair length, which do exist, are rarely enforced, according to NK News.