China's latest craze involves parents shelling out for helmets that they believe can help mold their babies' heads into ideal, rounded shapes.
A report said the trend of putting corrective molds on babies' heads started this October, with parents flocking to stores to buy helmets for their children. These helmets resemble bowling balls and are supposedly catered to babies whose heads are flatter in the back. They involve the mold being strapped onto a child's head for extended hours, with the belief that this can help shape their soft, still-developing skulls into a more aesthetically pleasing, rounded shape, per the country's beauty standards.
The desire to have a round head has spread to social-media users on Weibo, the country's version of Twitter, who have started sharing tips and tricks on how to "say goodbye to a flat head," referencing methods to style one's hair differently to create the appearance of a perfectly round head.
A Weibo trending topic called "How flat can one's head get" has spawned some 32,000 comment threads discussing how to "correct" or conceal one's head shape. Some Weibo users even referenced the K-pop star Jeon Jungkook of BTS fame, remarking on his coveted round head shape. Others discussed how to make their children's heads rounder, and they shared progress photos of various head-shape-correcting methods.
