Beauty / news
China's Gen Z Trades Flawless Hair for the 'Dopey Hair' Anime Look
Chinese youth are adopting the "ahoge," or "dopey hair," trend — a single deliberately styled flyaway strand borrowed from Japanese anime — as erciyuan culture moves from screens onto the streets.
The style, called "ahoge" in Japanese anime and manga and "daimao" among Chinese fans, centers on one strand of hair coaxed upward with gel or hairspray until it stands away from the head.
In anime, the device has long served as a visual shorthand for a character who is carefree, innocent or slightly naive. China's young consumers are now reproducing that signal in real life, part of a broader movement bringing "erciyuan" — 2D and ACG culture — out of fandom spaces and into everyday appearance.
The trend has spread widely on Xiaohongshu and Douyin, where creators post tutorials showing how to shape the gravity-defying flick.
Getting it right reportedly takes a delicate balance. Styled too flat, the strand vanishes; styled too stiff, it loses the whimsical quality that gives the look its appeal.
For its adopters, the cut is positioned as a playful pushback against hyper-curated, flawless beauty standards — a self-deprecating and deliberately cute choice that reads as a quiet signal to fellow anime fans.