In the hirsute of happiness

Hair. If you haven't noticed, it's nigh on everywhere, none more so prevalent perhaps than with the youff (youth) of today; more specifically, the young male tweens and teens aged between 13 and 19 years old. In carving out what can often be a particularly difficult few years, it appears that hair has taken over as the great protective mantle, forming a flat-to-the-forehead style that suggests a desire to hide from the world (call it a youthful form of 'Witness Protection Chic'), and yet, rather perversely, this very look is currently sporting the domes of the majority of the world's most famous male entertainers - young icons whose every cut, care and conundrum is pored over and analysed by the most up-to-the-millisecond generation we've ever known.

Case in point, a 16-year-old Canadian crooner you may have heard of: Justin 'Fever' Bieber. His do is nothing short of a global crowning glory - the veritable hair apparent du jour. With nairy an immaculate strand out of place, his cut would appear to be an almost obsessive mastery of the 'trim'; a human bonsai who is painstakingly scissored to perfection every week, carefully concealing the ears to drown out the incessant, high-octane, high-pitched squeals of fervent pubescent fans. He is, as I write, possibly the most high profile of young men to take to the mic on the international stage, and, like every l'il step he takes, his hair never puts a proverbial foot wrong.

Is there a name for this particular hairstyle? If there is, I'm not aware of it, quite possibly because I am, ahem, a woman of much older years, and back in my day, The Bowl, The Village Idiot and The Caesar, with its lobotomy-inspired fringe, were de rigueur. But I digress and inevitably must suggest:

If Michael Jackson was The King Of Pop, could Justin Bieber be The King Of The Crop?

Call it the ultimate 'brush with fame'. In an age where the most shocking gets the most airplay, perhaps the most shocking of all is that the male youff, with an enduring case of Bieber Fever, are turning away from a predilection for unwashed locks and embracing what mother always told 'em: Girls like boys with clean hair. And it must give them a sense of confidence too, unknowingly putting them in good stead for when the manscaping years come into play.

But you know what pleases me most? It's that these angsty, where-do-I-fit-in male teens have formed a global solidarity with loving their locks and hopefully, in turn, loving themselves.

At last it would appear that today's young men, with their penchant for 'The Bieber', are no longer backward in combing forward. And that's the kindest cut of all.