Ice square head: Exploring the latest hair styling trend
If you’ve ever been someone who internally cringes when they watch a stranger run their fingers through their hair, the excessive use of gel leaving their fingers glistening—this latest hair trend might not be for you. TikTok has birthed yet another bizarre new look: the ice/square head haircut.
Long forgotten are the days of the jellyfish haircut or fairy hair tinsel, in their place is a new craze involving excessive amounts of hair gel and an apparent lack of gravity. In August 2022, hair stylist Ahmad Friseur began uploading numerous videos onto his TikTok, which featured clients with enormous amounts of hair gel shaped on top of their scalp, resulting in a moulded block that resembled ice.
The first video that Friseur uploaded using this technique on 19 August received over 80 million views and 5.4 million likes. I’m assuming he immediately recognised the impact this bizarre style was having on users as almost overnight his page transformed into a shrine to the frosted look that ultimately became known as ‘the ice haircut/square head haircut.’
@ahmad.friseur ♬ Bounce When She Walk - Ohboyprince
What followed was a cascade of innovative ice hair art using large quantities of gel. Friseur created hats, mohawks, towers, and pigtails—all by using his holy grail product to sculpt new ideas. The internet’s new favourite barber even moulded the skin of a watermelon onto someone’s pre-gelled head.
@ahmad.friseur ♬ Life Is Good (feat. Drake) - Future
The natural next step for Friseur was to start including a range of props in his hair gel fantasy. This included a collection of yellow cylinder sponges, two pairs of blown-up black latex gloves and half a dozen googly eyes that were stuck at the end of seven gel towers constructed to stick out of a client’s head.
@ahmad.friseur ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys - Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
In his most recent video, posted on 15 October 2022, Friseur created what someone with trypophobia (fear of holes) would consider their worst nightmare by sculpting gel into two mounds which can only be described as giant hole-infested sideburns.
@ahmad.friseur #foryou #fypシ #tiktok #viral #trending
♬ original sound - บักสีดา101
Even if you’re not quite yet sold on the ice haircut taking over TikTok, it cannot be denied that barber Friseur may be single-handedly keeping the hair gel industry afloat.
