‘Utah Curls’ Trend Makes $1.5K Extensions Look Effortless: ‘How To Get Rapunzel Hair’

The biggest takeaway from The Secret Lives of Mormon Women wasn’t the creepy scandals or reality TV drama — apparently, it was their fake hair.

After the hit Hulu premiere last month, their slightly too cute and bouncy manes became known as “Utah Curls,” named for the origins of the #MomTok troupe.

“We love our hair extensions here,” Salt Lake City beauty pageant contestant and business owner LaRae Day, 28, told the Wall Street Journal.

She gets 22-inch hair extensions installed at Pleasant Grove salon JZ Styles — co-owned by Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jessi Ngatikaura — where other #MomTok creators also get hair services.

“There’s nothing like having Rapunzel hair,” Day said.

The viral style has become so popular that it has fueled a wave of hair tourism in Utah.

Kait Moritz, a stylist at JZ Styles, said there has been an influx of requests for hair extensions after seeing the reality stars’ hair on the show. She claimed that her inboxes on social networks are filled with requests from fans.

“People all over the country now want to fly,” Moritz, 25, told the Journal.

She styles her hair in Utah curls often, she added, telling the outlet that Mormon Wives extensions cost roughly $1,500 per appointment just for the hair — not including cut and color.

“It’s fun to put on extensions and feel like a different version of yourself,” added Moritz.

But it has spread beyond the waking state. In New York City, stylist Liz Christensen said clients regularly name “Mormon Wives” stars as hair inspiration, while Lindsey Torres, owner of Texas salon Root & Sage, said her clientele often refers to the Hulu series during meetings.

The mermaid locks trend has also caused haircut regrets. Siobhain Wiemann, a 41-year-old ultrasound student in Valencia, California, told the Journal that she began to doubt her decision to cut her hair.

“I was like, ‘Am I stupid for wanting to get extensions after I just cut my hair?’ Because look how they all look together,” she said, noting that while she hasn’t gotten extensions yet, she did buy an iron for JZ Styles curls meanwhile.

However, the style has drawn criticism from some that it only looks half done.

“Born and raised in Utah and had no idea this was an intentional style,” wrote one critic of a Utah curl tutorial on TikTok. “When I saw it, I thought they just didn’t know how to curl their hair.”

“Why are we leaving the edges straight? It’s giving damaged edges,” quipped another.

The curls, according to former Latter-day Saint Church member Alyssa Grenfell, 31, speak to greater values ​​of outward beauty in the Mormon community. The San Antonio resident, who has been vocal in her criticism of the church, claimed that, in religion, “one of the greatest values ​​of a woman is her beauty” and that long hair is one way to ‘was perceived as beautiful.

“The goal is to be beautiful, but to be beautiful in the same way,” Grenfell told the Journal.

While the LDS Church has condemned some of the behavior and portrayals of religion on the Hulu show, Mormon content creator Ciera Hudson, 29, told the Journal it’s less about religion and more about living in Utah, called Perfectionist Women of Utah.

“Everyone is competing with each other here,” she said. “Some people have beautiful hair naturally, and if you don’t, you get extensions.”