Two Australian students go to North Korea to…get a haircut

(Baonghean.vn) - Two students from Sydney (Australia) flew to North Korea with the purpose of getting a hippie hairstyle, and also to prove that people should not believe everything the media publishes about the isolated regime under Kim Jong-un's government.

Two Australian friends visit the Mansu Hill Memorial. Photo: Archive

Two students from the University of Sydney, Aleksa Vulovic, 24, and Alex Apollonov, 25, were excited to embark on a trip to North Korea to get a haircut, having learned that Pyongyang has very strict haircut laws for its citizens.

Mr. Vulovic before getting a haircut in Pyongyang. File photo

According to the report, there are only 14 hairstyle options for men or women, and the “swept back” hairstyle is taboo. Another story, published on the front page of several prominent newspapers in 2014, said that all men in North Korea were instructed to have the same hairstyle as leader Kim Jong-un.

Mr. Vulovic after getting a haircut in Pyongyang. File photo

Interested in the stories above, two Sydney friends spent 2000 Australian dollars each (equivalent to about 35 million VND) for 6 days of travel in North Korea on a group tour program at the end of July last year. Immediately after arriving in Pyongyang, Vulovic booked a haircut at a salon recommended by the tour guide. He showed the female barber a photo of a “hippie hairstyle with a unique beard”, a completely different choice from the “traditional Korean” hairstyles. The barber happily complied and started cutting.

Two students visited North Korea last July. File photo

“It was a better haircut than any I’ve had in Australia,” Mr Vulovic described the experience, adding that there were “a lot of locals” in the salon at the time. After the experience, he was convinced that the whole story about North Korean haircut laws was simply “a fabrication”.

The two friends recorded the experience with an SLR camera in a 20-minute documentary called: “Haircut Experience: A North Korean Adventure.”

The photo of “hippie hairstyle with a cool beard” that Vulovic provided. Photo archive

They said filming with a regular camera would help them avoid trouble from local authorities. Since being posted on YouTube last week, the film has been viewed nearly 20,000 times. North Korean officials have not commented.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have prompted officials in several Asia-Pacific countries, including Australia, to advise their citizens to “reconsider travel” to the Northeast Asian nation. Foreigners can be arrested, detained or deported for activities that may not be considered crimes in Australia, including unsanctioned religious or political activities, unlicensed travel or unprotected contact with indigenous people.

Lan Ha

(According to 9news)