Parents in China are using helmet-like products on infants to make their heads take a rounder shape amid the rise of a new beauty craze in the country.
The cost of beauty: A popular belief that perfectly round heads look beautiful has led to the popularity of “head-correcting” helmets and other items that promise to help mold babies’ heads, reported Insider.
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- On local social media platform Weibo, many have been referencing BTS member Jeon Jungkook for his round head shape that many find to be ideal.
- Intended for infants with heads that are flatter in the back, the corrective molds are strapped onto a child’s head for hours to get the intended rounded shape.
- While a local site noted that the helmets cost around $4,300, cheaper versions that go for as low as $3 are also available on shopping portal Taobao.
- Chinese parents have also been buying $20 shape-correcting pillows to get the same effect.
- Sleeping mats priced around $15 are also sold to help prevent babies from sleeping in positions that can “cause a flat head.”
A mom’s testimonial: In a post on a local online forum, a Chinese mother swore by her use of “miracle” equipment that she claimed to have helped “correct a baby’s head shape,” according to the South China Morning Post.
- In her now-deleted post titled “I took my baby to head-shape correction, despite my family’s protests,” the mother narrated how she got her 7-month-old daughter her own custom-made “head correction gear.”
- “I think wearing a head helmet has the same function as wearing braces, which is to correct a body part and make it more beautiful,” she wrote.
- She lamented that having a flat head herself, she understands the pain of similar women who have been chasing beauty.
- “I don’t want my kid to grow up and regret this part of herself,” she added.
- On Weibo, users are sharing how different head-shape-correcting products and methods are working well for their children.
- Other users are sharing techniques and best practices in keeping their babies from having a flat head, including styling hair in a certain manner.
