Your Guide to Liverpool Ket Wigs

It’s the question that is now being asked in towns across the country and it turns out this Scouse trend actually began life back in the early 90’s.

Visitors to the city have been getting in touch to ask us why our young lads are sporting these mad hair styles and so naturally, we’ve put together a bit of a low down, you know, the 411, the deal about the Ket Wig. These bushy, frizzy barnets have been all the rage for a good couple of years now, and despite this look being wildly popular among our youths, it’s actually nothing new.

What is a Ket Wig?

According to Urban Dictionary, the top Ket Wig definition is: Someone, normally a chav, who hasn’t had a hair cut and instead has grown a disgusting mass of hair. The name comes from the idea that the money saved from not getting a hair cut can instead be spent in there view wisely, on ketamine.

Okay well first up we don’t say the word chav, its scally up here, and while some of the ket wigs we’ve been subjected to are indeed pretty disgusting, there’s the odd one that has super model potential, like lad seriously, get on the blower to Gucci, they’ll have you walking that catwalk in designer threads in no time.

So they all take drugs?

No! We’re fully aware that the vast majority of our young lads don’t do ket, or drugs in general. It’s a trend, a follicle high five to being a scouse teen. Clearly all the money saved from not getting a number 1 all over is going towards a new mountain bike to pull mad wheelies down East Prescot Road!

How did it start?

Here’s a bit of history for you. If you’re sporting a ket wig now, chances are you wont remember Harry Enfield’s hilarious sketch show from back in the early 90’s, which is a crying shame because it was boss. Harry and his mates, actors Mark Moraghan, Joe McGann and Gary Bleasedale played The Scousers, stereotyped, trackied up fellas in their early 20’s who rocked black curly perm wigs that we’re 100% is the origin of todays trend. Based on the Brookside actors of the day, the city adopted Enfield’s ‘The Scousers’ as its own, well, who doesn’t love an easy fancy dress costume eh….eh…..eh?

Pop stars like Harry Styles have also been blamed for kicking off this unkempt look, much to the dislike of younger Scousers who take on the trend.

This legacy has stood the test of time and with our world famous sense of humour, we’ve even played on it to raise a shed load of money for local charities too! The annual Scouse 5k sees thousands come together to run the city streets in coloured curly wigs, showing if nothing else, we’re scouse, a bit mad, and proud!

The future of the Ket Wig

Hands up, who’s sat behind one of these ket wig lads on the bus and imagined sweeping all that hair up into a magnificent bun ring…..? Maybe it’s just us then.

The Ket Wig trend is actually pretty versatile, in winter the mop of hair acts as an additional layer of insulation, in summer its more of a challenge but some lads manage to jam a North Face cap over their wig resulting in more of a Side Show Bob kind of look. Is it better than a man bun though? We’re not convinced.

We’re kind of hoping the shorter, more slick look of 2005 makes a come back again soon. Teaching staff at one Birkenhead school are concerned they’ve not actually seen the faces of some of their students for the last 18 months. If the trend continues, there may be a local shortage of hair care products too and our scouse prinnys wont stand for that! We’re yet to see a trackied up, young scouser proudly walking out of Home & Bargain with 2 packs of Velcro rollers and some Moroccan oil, but we reckon it’s only a matter of time.

We want to see your most impressive Ket Wig pics, tweet us @TheGuideLpool or drop us a message on Facebook here and we’ll share the best on our socials. Get that tangle teaser out lads!