Stray Kids' Hyunjin Cuts His Hair For The First Time In Almost 1.5 Years

Stray Kids‘ Hyunjin has been known for his gorgeous long locks for well over a year now… but all that just changed with an unexpected new haircut.

Hyunjin debuted his long hair all the way back on May 27, 2020, when the group released their trailer for “GO.” As if the video wasn’t exciting enough, fans went crazy when Hyunjin appeared on screen with neck-length hair and a ponytail.

Stray Kids’ Hyunjin (front) | *JYP Entertainment/YouTube*

The new look wasn’t actually the first time Hyunjin had gone beyond short hair. He also had a mullet back in 2018…

… and he repeated the look in 2019 too.

That said, his long hair for “GO” was a much more intense and dramatic change. From then on, he continued to grow his locks out longer. Over the period of a year or so, he showed off long blonde hair,

long pink hair,

long black hair,

… and everything in between. In time, he soon became known for the style, even among non-STAYs. Many are convinced Hyunjin’s haircut even set a trend among boy group idols, many of whom have grown their hair out over the past year or so.

Fans got so used to long-haired Hyunjin, many never even considered that he might go back to short hair—which is why everyone fell into shock this week when he suddenly appeared with a haircut!

Stray Kids began promotions for B-side track “DOMINO” on Music Bank this week, and many fans were suspicious when they saw Hyunjin hiding his hair under a hoodie in fancam photos before the episode aired.

However, since Hyunjin has hidden his hair for no real reason in the past, many didn’t believe there was anything suspicious going on. But then, the “DOMINO” performance was revealed… and STAY social media went crazy when they saw this:

HYUNJIN SHORT HAIR ENDING FAIRY pic.twitter.com/qvfn4iYQvy

— 짧흑발머미남 (@ctrlhwng) September 24, 2021

For the first time in 16 months—almost a year and a half—Hyunjin has short hair again!

Within less than an hour, the star made it to Twitter‘s top 10 worldwide trends as STAYs sent out hundreds of thousands of tweets in the aftermath of Hyunjin’s surprise haircut. While some mourned the loss of his long hair, others were excited to see something new—especially new fans who’d never seen short-haired Hyunjin before.

the long hair was iconic but let me just say, hwang hyunjin himself is the BRAND istg. no matter what look he pull up with he is always, ALWAYS, look high end EXPENSIVE!

— rei ⚡ (@duljisung) September 24, 2021

Of course, no matter how much you loved his old look, there’s no denying Hyunjin is equally handsome no matter what haircut he has. The proof? His first set of selfies with short hair are about to surpass 2 million likes on Instagram in less than 24 hours.

Before long, Hyunjin started a live broadcast to talk about his new look. While he knew some fans may be shocked and a little sorry to see his long hair go, he emphasized that he’s still the same person with short locks.