Meet Russell Fredrick.
He’s a barber who will give your kids a ‘punishment haircut’ if they’re naughty. It won’t be a cut they want. It might include old-style baldness. And there won’t be anything flattering about it.
(See Exhibit A below. Yes, we’d be crying too.)
The trend kicked a year ago, when Fredrick's 12-year-old son refused to do his homework and was misbehaving at school. In a bid to embarrass his son and teach him a lesson, Fredrick shaved his hair off, giving him what is known as the 'Benjamin Button' hairstyle:
“After I shaved him bald, I told him that if things continued I would get more creative with each cut, but I never had to because he straightened up his act," Fredrick told US Newspaper The Register-Guard.
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Fredrick now offers the ugly cuts to any parent who wants them.
“Whenever people come in and ask for it, we do it.” he said.
Fredrick's haircuts have spurred on a social movement. Parents are shaming their kids publicly by shaving their hair, filming the footage and then uploading it to YouTube in the hope that it will go viral.
The image above was uploaded to reddit with the caption: "Anyone else want me to babysit their kid? When they act up I give them old men haircuts."
But many people don't agree with the tactic, saying that it is a cruel and outdated punishment that relies too much on humiliation.
One reddit user said the trend could damage more than a child's looks: "Public shaming and bullying your kid is just going to screw them up and probably turn them into a jerk and a bully, having learned it's an acceptable way to deal with people."
Psychologist Xanthia Bianca Johnson agrees. She told the Washington Post that punishment haircuts trigger shame.